Barcelona hold off Levante fightback to stay three points clear

Barcelona hold off Levante fightback to stay three points clear Barcelona made it five wins from five in La Liga on Sunday, beating Levante 4-2 away at the Ciutat de València with Lamine Yamal scoring twice, according to Barca Blaugranes . The result kept Hansi Flick’s side top of the table with a three-point cushion, though a nervy finish took some of the gloss off an otherwise commanding away performance. Barcelona survive late Levante scare to make it five wins Xavi Espart opened the scoring after just five minutes, his first goal for the club, following a slick passing move through the middle of Levante’s defence. Barcelona doubled their lead soon after when Raphinha dribbled past goalkeeper Mathew Ryan and squared for Yamal to tap in from close range, with the Brazilian captain again central to the buildup, as detailed in Football España’s look at Raphinha’s growing leadership role this season. Yamal added a third early in the second half, winning and converting a penalty to put the game seemingly beyond doubt. But Barcelona’s grip loosened after Pedri and Yamal were withdrawn around the hour mark: a poor pass from Espart in his own box let Iván Romero pull one back, and Marc Bernal’s error in midfield teed up Roger Brugué to make it 3-2 and set up a tense finish. Karim Adeyemi settled matters in stoppage time, driving forward from the substitutes’ bench on a solo run down the left before finishing past Ryan to restore the two-goal cushion. Barcelona had dominated for long stretches, but as Barca Blaugranes put it, the win was made unnecessarily dramatic by their own second-half lapses. Perfect start keeps Barcelona three points clear The win extends Barcelona’s perfect league record to five matches out of five and preserves their three-point advantage at the summit, a lead they had briefly seen threatened by Real Madrid’s own strong start to the campaign. It continues a run of fast starts and dominant attacking spells that has become a hallmark of Flick’s side in the early weeks of the season, a theme also touched on in Football España’s coverage of Barcelona’s early-season momentum in Europe . Yamal’s growing importance to Barcelona Yamal’s brace, a first-half tap-in followed by a converted penalty, was once again decisive in a Barcelona victory, underlining his central role in a Flick attack that has rarely stopped scoring this season. It is a theme that recurs regularly around Yamal’s evolving standing within the Barcelona dressing room , and Sunday’s contribution at Levante did nothing to slow that narrative.