It was a return to winning ways for Atleti, whose season had begun to unravel in the last two weeks, drawing at home to Sevilla, exiting the Copa del Rey at the hands of Celta Vigo and then falling three points behind Barcelona in La Liga by losing 2-1 to the Catalans with nine men.
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Third-placed Real Madrid are now seven points adrift of Barca, but can cut the gap when they travel to Granada later on Sunday. “And there are still a lot of things left to conquer”.
The result also kept Barcelona atop the Spanish league with 54 points, three more than Atletico Madrid, which defeated Eibar 3-1 on Saturday.
Luis Enrique has issued an ominous warning to Barcelona’s domestic and European rivals by confidently stating: “We are not in our best form”. The Valencian club have lost their last five head-to-head meetings with Barcelona, including a 4-1 defeat in the reverse fixture at the Nou Camp in September.
Levante continued to put the visitors under pressure in the second period, too, but Barcelona, who failed to fire in their forward forays, preserved their slender advantage until stoppage time, when Luis Suarez made the game safe.
“But they are three important points and it was very important for us not to drop points here”. The local fans gave the team a standing ovation at the end of the game despite the loss at the Ciutat de Valencia Stadium.
They went even closer after that Morales accelerated away from his marker and sent a right-foot shot which hit the post.
Suarez is now the leader for the Pichichi on 20 goals, one more than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Suarez sealed the win with a smart finish from a counter attack in the last move of the game as Levante pressed for an equaliser.
That confidence would shine through in the early stages, with Lionel Messi slotting an effort past Levante keeper Diego Marino – only for the Argentinian to be wrongly flagged as offside after a brilliant piece of play from captain Andres Iniesta.
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Having rested a couple of key players in the midweek cup clash against Valencia, whom they demolished 7-0, Luis Enrique has the luxury of calling upon the entire squad except the long term injured Rafinha according to FC Barcelona’s official website. It has outscored opponents 34-5 its last 10 games.
