Levante 2-4 Barcelona was supposed to be a routine Sunday afternoon in Valencia. For 50 minutes it was exactly that. Then Barça spent the last half-hour being reminded that a 3-0 lead at the Ciutat de València guarantees nothing, and it took a moment of pure individualism from Karim Adeyemi in stoppage time to send Hansi Flick’s side home with a fifth win from five.
They remain top, they remain perfect, and they are now two victories away from the best start in the club’s history. But nobody in the away dressing room pretended this was comfortable.
How Levante 2-4 Barcelona unfolded
The opening was almost absurd. Barcelona strung together 79 passes — every outfield player touching the ball — while Levante managed three clearances, all of which went straight back to a visiting player. At four minutes and seven seconds, per Mundo Deportivo, the rondo finally produced something. Rodri drove forward, the ball went through Raphinha and Fermín López and back to the Brazilian, who rolled it into the path of Xavi Espart. The 19-year-old side-footed it gently off the base of the post and went to kiss the badge.
It was his first goal for the first team, in his 11th official appearance. Philipp Lahm — the player Flick himself keeps invoking when he talks about Espart — needed 26 games to score his first for Bayern Munich.
Fifteen minutes later it was two. Pau Cubarsí picked out Fermín from the back, Fermín sent Raphinha away, and the captain took the ball around the goalkeeper before squaring for Lamine Yamal to walk it in. Six minutes into the second half Yamal won a penalty and buried it himself for 3-0. Asked afterwards why the 19-year-old was on the ball, Flick shrugged: set pieces are José Ramón de la Fuente’s department, and “the players decide — whoever feels best at that moment takes it”.
The half-hour that made it interesting
Levante had not lost at home in eight matches, and they had not read the script. Espart, outstanding all afternoon, ended it with the one action he will want back: a badly weighted back pass that Iván Romero accepted gratefully for 1-3. Roger Brugué made it 2-3 and suddenly a stadium that had spent 45 minutes chasing shadows could smell a remontada.
Barcelona had already been wobbling. Gerard Martín was withdrawn at half-time after a first half of misplaced passes, Pedri and Rodri never found any rhythm in front of the back four, and Andreas Christensen and Cubarsí needed a combined goal-line intervention on the hour to keep it at three.
Then Adeyemi settled it. Picking the ball up inside his own half, the German ran at and past two defenders, cut inside Mandi, sat the goalkeeper down and finished at the near post for 2-4 in added time. It is his third goal in six appearances and 202 minutes since arriving from Borussia Dortmund — roughly one every 67 minutes — after his long-range effort against Feyenoord in midweek. This time there was no backflip.
Flick takes the blame, and the lesson
“We had a great start, but in the second half we suffered a bit,” the head coach said. “At 3-0 we should have had more control, and Levante were at home and did very well.” He was blunt about the first goal conceded: “That one was my fault. We wanted to make the substitution, Espart had asked for it, but we decided to wait.”
He also grumbled about a pitch that “wasn’t as it should be”, and then framed the whole thing as progress rather than warning. “It’s not easy, even if it looks easy. In the end we have to suffer, and there are situations we need to do much better in — but surviving those situations is also improving.”
Flick made five changes from the 5-1 win over Feyenoord, with Eric García playing in a protective mask, Raphinha again operating as the false nine and Anthony Gordon starting on the left. The Blaugrana wore their new turquoise third kit, and the home crowd applauded Barça’s eight World Cup winners before kick-off.
Where it leaves Barcelona
Fifteen points from 15, 21 goals scored and four conceded, three clear of Real Madrid, who beat Rayo Vallecano 4-1 on Saturday. Two more wins would match the seven-game winning starts of Gerardo Martino’s 2013/14 side and Flick’s own 2024/25 vintage — the best in the club’s history.
The chances come quickly: Racing de Santander at the Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday at 21:30 CEST, then Sevilla away at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán on Saturday at 21:00. As the Ballon d’Or vote closes around him, Yamal keeps answering on the grass. His team, on this evidence, still has a defensive conversation to have.
