First Division - Day 4

Barcelona 4 - Levante 1

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Dani Alves, Marc Bartra, Mascherano, Adriano; Rakitic, Busquets (Gumbau 62‘); Munir, Messi, Neymar; Sandro. 4-2-3-1.
Levante: Rubén; Iván López, Trujillo, Feddal, Juanfran, Toño; Camarasa (Rubén García 80‘), Verza, Jefferson Lerma; Ghilas (Víctor Casadesús 63‘), Roger (Deyverson 68’). 5-3-2.

Goals:
1-0. 50. Marc Bartra. Chested down Messi cross and turned shot past Rubén.
2-0. 56. Neymar. Controlled Alves centre and beat keeper at second attempt.
1-2. 60. Messi (penalty). After Trujillo brought down Neymar inside the area.
3-1. 66. Casadesús. Poked shot into net after Ter Stegen missed Toño cross.
4-1. 90. Messi. Picked up Bartra pass and ran on past three defenders to score.

Yellow cards: Verza 45’.

Barcelona made it four wins out of four after beating Levante 4-1 in the last match of Sunday evening. With an intense programme of games coming up, Luis Enrique rested the likes of Iniesta and Luis Suárez, giving a run out to Sandro and Munir up front. Even so they dominated for most of the game, the two youngsters and Messi all bringing good saves out of Rubén before Marc Bartra finally opened the scoring from Messi’s assist some five minutes in to the second half. Neymar got a second a few minutes later after the visiting keeper could only push a Dani Alves cross over to him, the Brazilian forward threading a shot through a sea of legs at the second attempt. And four minutes after that Messi made it three from the penalty spot after Trujillo bundled over Neymar inside the area. Víctor Casadesús got one back though after Ter Stegen failed to clear Toño’s cross, and Messi fired a second penalty over the bar after Feddal brought him down. However he made up for it with a “house special” in the last minute, running on from midfield past several defenders before steering a low shot wide of Rubén from the edge of the area. Barça stay two points clear of three teams, including Celta, who they visit in the midweek round of games on Wednesday.