Eric Garcia did not spend long enjoying the scoreline. Barcelona were three goals up and cruising at the Ciutat de València on Sunday, and they still needed a stoppage-time goal from Karim Adeyemi to make the last 20 minutes bearable. When the masked defender stopped in the mixed zone afterwards, he sounded less like a man who had just won his fifth league game of five and more like one filing a warning for later.
Eric Garcia: "These are mistakes we can avoid"
Barcelona led 3-0 inside the opening minute of the second half. Iván Romero and Roger Brugué then pulled two back in the closing stretch, and a procession turned into an evening of holding on.
"The grass wasn’t helping much, the time of day, the heat… it’s a difficult pitch. They hadn’t lost since March. It was tough, but we made it more difficult for ourselves than necessary," Eric told Movistar, as relayed by Barca Blaugranes. "It should serve as a lesson that if you give an opponent any breathing room, they’ll turn on you."
And then the line that will stick: "These are mistakes we can avoid. We played a good game overall. We can be happy."
The 24 was back in the XI after sitting out the Champions League opener through a suspension carried over from last season, and he played the full 90 in a protective face mask following the knock he took from Rodri at Mestalla. He also went out of his way to defend the youngest man in the back four, whose loose pass gifted Levante their first. "The boss is showing he has complete confidence in him and he is responding," he said of Xavi Espart, who had scored his first senior goal in the fifth minute. "He is playing very well and we have to be delighted. He has to keep working."
Cubarsi: "At 3-0 we have to be smart"
Pau Cubarsi, who completed the 90 alongside three different partners’ worth of reshuffling, reached the same conclusion from the other side of the pitch.
"It was a game we had under control. Because of two mistakes we should have managed, they got back into it," he said, per Mundo Deportivo. "On pitches like this, any error is punished. We knew it was difficult to win here and that at 3-0 the game was not over. At 3-0 we have to be smart, take our time and control the game. We have room to improve at settling matches down."
Asked about Hansi Flick’s public praise for his form since the World Cup, the centre-back kept the focus on the same theme. "Yes, I feel comfortable. Maybe there are days when things don’t go the way I want, but I always work," he told Diario SPORT, via Barca Universal. Flick had warned his players before kick-off about letting their concentration drop; Cubarsi confirmed that the wobble was precisely what the German had meant. "Yes, he is talking about minutes like those."
The 25 minutes behind the warning
The detail supports the self-criticism. Gerard Martin was withdrawn at half-time, on a booking and after a scrappy 45 in which his distribution repeatedly invited pressure; Andreas Christensen replaced him. In midfield, Pedri and Rodri both had rare off-days, misplacing passes that fed Levante’s counter-attacks and leaving the defence exposed. Espart, cramping badly by then, played the back-pass that became Romero’s goal — an error Flick insisted was his own for not substituting him sooner.
Cubarsi admitted that only Adeyemi’s late solo goal settled things. "We were able to calm things down, because the crowd were really pushing, and Karim’s goal came at the perfect moment. It saved us a bit."
Why it matters before Racing and Sevilla
The context is that this is still a defence conceding almost nothing. Barcelona have shipped four goals in five LaLiga matches — and half of them arrived inside 25 minutes on Sunday. They sit top with 15 points from 15, 21 goals scored, three clear of Real Madrid.
Flick’s own verdict was measured: "We suffered in the second half, but I am happy." He had told his squad before the game that dropping even 10 per cent would take them in the wrong direction, and two of his defenders have now said the same thing back to him in public.
Racing de Santander visit the Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday before a trip to Sevilla at the weekend. On the evidence of a 2-4 win that flattered nobody at the back, the Blaugrana already know which 25 minutes Flick will be replaying on the training ground.
