Unbeaten Barcelona run ended by Levante

Levante hosted Barcelona in the Estadi Ciutat de València for a La Liga clash between the two Spanish teams. The Catalonia giants had not been defeated up to this stage and were on course to be a part of the historical Invincible sides like Arsenal and Juventus who achieved this feat in their league. All they had to do was to avoid defeat in their last two matches but Levante had other ideas. Valverde started the match with Mina and Vermaelen in the middle of defense flanked by Semedo and Alba. He was made to rue this decision as he saw his Barcelona team ship in a number of goals. Barcelona started off well with Dembele fizzling a shot just too high over the goal before seeing his cross to an unmarked Suarez was blocked. On the 8th minute, Ghanaian striker Boateng scored from Jose Luis Morales cross. The forward scored Levante’s second on the 30th minute when he latched onto Sasa Lukic’s pass before rounding off Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and shrugging off a challenge from Barcelona right-back, Nelson Semedo. Philippe Coutinho reduced the deficit in half when he struck a beautifully curled effort on the 38th minute past the Levante goalkeeper.

From then, it was all Levante as Enis Bardhi scored just 33 seconds into the second half from a through pass by Jose Campagna. Boateng completed his hat-trick before Bardhi scored Levante’s 5th of the night. Barcelona needed to score 5 to win the match and they came close through Coutinho’s second-half double and Luis Suarez’s penalty. 5-4 was the final score from the match and Boateng shined on the greatest night in Levante’s 108-year history. This result marks the first defeat for Barcelona in La Liga meaning that Iniesta will leave the club without completing this final piece.