FC Barcelona‘s Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring during a Spanish La Liga soccer match against Levante at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona.
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Levante’s heaviest ever top-flight defeat came at the Nou Camp against Barcelona in August 2013 (7-0). In his eyes, grabbing the three points while Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta and Jordi Alba remained as unused substitutes was a good enough reward – and, given the adverse circumstances his squad is now enduring, nobody can really blame him.
Barcelona enjoyed a thumping 4-1 win over Levante yesterday. Real Madrid has not allowed a single goal through four games of play this La Liga season.
Luis Enrique used the match to experiment somewhat, deploying Messi in a more traditional role behind the striker, and giving young forward Sandro Ramirez his first start. We have every faith in him.
Gerard Gumbau Left-footed midfielder made debut as a sub for Busquets. There are a lot of things that the team have to do very well. It was a welcome burst of offense after Barcelona failed to score in the first half on Levante goalkeeper Ruben.
WhoScored.com look into the Argentine’s penalty stats in recent years to see whether Messi should be relinquishing his duties from the spot. But Messi’s power game is high risk.
To little surprise, Barcelona dominated possession and the attack.
“[On using Lionel Messi or Neymar in midfielder], I haven’t considered it. They should be near the opponents’ goal”.
Lucky breaks like the ball falling to Vermaelen against Malaga are rare; this is a genuine tactical method of breaking down a packed defence and because of Messi’s excellence, is a genuine option for Barcelona.
A Bruno Soriano penalty followed by goals from Mario Gaspar and Leo Baptistao gave Villarreal a 3-1 win over Athletic Bilbao who got a late consolation through Aritz Aduriz. Enrique though was full of praise for the Argentinian and he was pleased with his team’s general performance as Levante were brushed aside.
As for Levante, they’ll be looking simply to avoid a hammering, and reduce their one goal-conceded-per-game average so far this season.
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Usually the attackers clamber back to their feet and the game goes on, but Rafinha stayed down and had to be taken off on a stretcher.
