Levante 0 - 2 Barcelona: Primera Division leaders Barcelona equal undefeated record with Levante win

Posted Sunday, February 07, 2016 by PA

Barcelona equalled a club record of 28 games unbeaten in all competition by defeating struggling Levante 2-0 to stay three points clear at the top of the Primera Division.

An own goal by David Navarro in the first half gave Barcelona the lead against the league's bottom club, who put up a strong resistance and squandered a couple of clear chances to equalise, including hitting the woodwork.

But Luis Suarez made sure of the points by scoring in injury time, finishing off a breakaway assisted by Lionel Messi.

Although Luis Enrique had to sweat for the victory in his 100th game in charge of Barcelona, the coach picked up a win that sees him match Pep Guardiola's unbeaten run between September 2010 and January 2011, a record he will surpass should his side avoid defeat to Valencia on Wednesday in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final tie.

This was a far less explosive performance than the one Barca produced in the first leg against Gary Neville's side, Suarez scoring four and Messi also bagging a hat-trick in a 7-0 rout.

Luis Enrique put out a similar side to the one that mesmerised Valencia, although resting Sergio Busquets in favour of Sergi Roberto and recalling Javier Mascherano, Ivan Rakitic and Claudio Bravo.

But Catalan coach Rubi set out a clear plan to counteract Barca, and over the 90 minutes their high-pressing game worked far better than Neville's strategy of sitting and waiting for their opponents.

Nonetheless, Barca made a breathtaking start, Andres Iniesta firing just over the bar inside two minutes, and a minute later the midfielder threaded a pass into Messi, who scored but was incorrectly ruled offside.

Deyverson had Levante's first effort, missing the target at the near post. Their goalkeeper Diego Marino was called into action for the first time to tip away a curling shot by Neymar, but just moments later was picking the ball out of the net after being beaten by his own team-mate.

Iniesta played in Jordi Alba down the left and Navarro sent the defender's low cross high into his own net.

Suarez could have doubled the lead when he met a Neymar through-ball first time, but dragged his shot wide of the near post.

Then Levante began to grow into the game, hitting Barca with quick counters. Their best chance fell to Jose Luis Morales, who got behind the line of defence to bear down on Bravo, but his left-footed shot bounced off the far post.

New signing Giuseppe Rossi came close to levelling right at the start of the second half, but was denied by a diving save from Bravo.

At the other end, Marino kept Levante in the game by tipping a point-blank range header from Rakitic over the bar.

That allowed the hosts to keep fighting until the end for an equaliser, although they were unable to pierce Barcelona's resolute defence.

And they were finally dealt a fatal blow just before the final whistle as they committed more and more men forward.

Messi controlled a long ball forward on the right side of the halfway line and shimmied his way past the one Levante defender back to spread the play to Suarez, who took one touch outside the area before smashing past Marino, grabbing his 36th goal of the season.