Barcelona Edges Past Levante in Chaotic Finish
Barcelona survived a late scare at the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia, edging past Levante in a chaotic finish that turned a routine night into a warning shot for Hansi Flick’s early-season high-flyers.
What looked like a procession almost turned into a collapse.
Dream start, teenage stamp
Barcelona were out of the blocks before Levante had even settled. Within five minutes, teenager Xavi Espart had his first senior goal, a composed finish that carried all the ease of a player who has grown up with this stage in mind. One touch, one clean strike, and the visitors were in front.
The second came with the kind of football Flick wants this team to live by. Raphinha stitched the move together, knitting passes and angles, before the ball broke for Lamine Yamal inside the box. From close range, the youngster did not hesitate. Two goals up, Barcelona were gliding.
Levante chased shadows. Barcelona moved the ball with a swagger that suggested another comfortable victory was already being filed away.
Yamal from the spot, then the storm
Right after the break, the gap widened. Yamal stepped up to take an early second-half penalty and buried it, his second of the night, Barcelona’s third. At 3-0, the league leaders looked out of reach. The home crowd quietened. The game felt done.
That illusion did not last.
A loose moment from Espart gave Levante a lifeline. Ivan Romero pounced on the teenager’s mistake with just over 10 minutes to play, punishing the error and igniting the stadium. One goal back, belief restored, and suddenly Barcelona’s composure wavered.
The tension thickened. Levante pushed higher, tackles flew in, and Barcelona, so fluid earlier, began to retreat.
In the 88th minute, the pressure finally broke them again. Roger Brugue struck, and 3-0 had become 3-2. The league leaders, who had coasted for an hour, now found themselves hanging on, the noise around them growing with every Levante attack.
Adeyemi slams the door
Just when the comeback felt inevitable, Karim Adeyemi tore up the script.
Deep into stoppage time, the substitute picked up the ball and went to work. He drove at one defender, then another, then a third, slicing through Levante’s back line with a burst of pace and purpose that turned panic into relief. His finish matched the run – a brilliant solo goal that killed the contest and secured the points.
It was Adeyemi’s third goal since arriving from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, another sharp reminder of why Barcelona moved for him. Impact off the bench, impact under pressure. The contrast with fellow new arrival Anthony Gordon, still searching for his first goal in Blaugrana colours, is inevitable.
Flick, though, refused to let that narrative turn into a problem for the English forward. He highlighted Gordon’s ball control, his ability to help Barcelona keep possession, his importance to the structure even without the finish. The goals, he insisted, will come.
Flick’s anger behind the win
The result will read like another step in a flawless start. The performance told a different story.
Flick did not hide his frustration. He criticised the drop in intensity after the third goal and demanded smarter game management from his players. At 3-0, he wanted calm. He got chaos.
He even took the blame for Levante’s first goal, admitting that a delayed substitution decision opened the door for Romero’s strike. It was a rare public acceptance of fault from a coach whose standards are famously unforgiving.
The review will be ruthless. Flick spoke of positioning, passing, the connections between players – the fine details that had made Barcelona’s early-season games look “easy” only because they had been executed so well.
This time, the details slipped. The win stayed.
Barcelona leave Valencia still top, still perfect on paper, but with a sharp reminder ringing in their ears: in this league, even a 3-0 lead can turn fragile in a heartbeat.
