Levante vs Barcelona arrives on Sunday with the league leaders in the best goalscoring form in Europe and the home side entirely unbothered by it. Levante captain Roger Brugué has spent the build-up telling anyone who will listen that his team are travelling nowhere and fearing nobody.
“Barça is a great rival and they’re coming into this game in good form, but we also know we’re strong at home,” the striker told the club’s media. “We’ve won six straight at home and we’re going there without fear, without any inferiority complex. We’re going to work, make a good game plan and why not?”
Levante vs Barcelona: a home record worth respecting
It would be easy to file that under pre-match politeness if the Estadi Ciutat de València had not become a genuinely awkward place to visit. Levante dismantled Real Betis 5-2 there last time out, and Brugué’s explanation of how they do it was refreshingly free of false modesty in the other direction.
“We don’t have superstars,” he said. “We all have to pull together, be a united front.”
That is the opposite of the team arriving on Sunday, and Brugué knows it. Hansi Flick’s side have won all five of their matches this season and scored 22 goals doing it. Raphinha, the captain, has eight of them and was named La Liga’s Player of the Month for August. Lamine Yamal has five, Fermín López four, Karim Adeyemi one, and Gabriel Jesus opened his account in the Champions League win over Feyenoord.
The two players still waiting
The detail that should worry Levante most is what has not happened yet. Per Mundo Deportivo, every available first-team forward has scored this season except two — Anthony Gordon and Dani Olmo — and both have been among Barça’s most productive players regardless.
Gordon has five assists in the four league games he has played: two on his debut at Elche, two more against Rayo Vallecano and one at Valencia. Olmo supplied two of his own in the 5-0 win at Mestalla. Neither has troubled the scoresheet himself, which, for a €70m winger and an attacking midfielder with Olmo’s finishing record, reads less like a problem than a warning of what is still to come.
Team news and what to look for
Barça travel in good health by the standards of an early-season squad. Eric García is expected to be available wearing a protective mask after his broken nose, while Frenkie de Jong and Roony Bardghji remain long-term absentees. Pau Cubarsí should again anchor a defence that has been rebuilt around him since Ronald Araújo left on loan for Liverpool in the summer.
The match will also be the first outing for the new third kit, which Barcelona will debut at the Ciutat de València.
History is not on Levante’s side
Brugué’s optimism runs into one stubborn statistic: Barcelona have scored in all 34 of their La Liga meetings with Levante, 101 goals in total. Keeping this particular Barça side out for 90 minutes would not just be an upset; it would be a first in the fixture’s history.
Which is presumably why Levante’s captain framed the task the way he did. Not a prediction, not a promise — just a shrug and a question. Why not?
Kick-off is on Sunday at 16:15 CEST.
