FC Barcelona went four for four after a 4-1 home victory against Levante UD at the Camp Nou coming off a 1-1 draw in the UEFA Champions League against AS Roma. Still, with a little help from Lionel Messi, Neymar and Marc Bartra, they were able to get the three points.

Frustrating first half

It was indeed a frustrating first half for the home side in Catalonia as Luis Enrique announced a rotational side shortly before the match that saw captain Andres Iniesta and Luis Suarez, who scored in the 1-1 draw against AS Roma on Wednesday in Rome in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. Instead, Sandro Ramirez and Munir replaced the Spaniard and Uruguayan respectively.

Barcelona clearly looked for various chances in the first half as the first big one came in the 15th minute when Lionel Messi, who was the captain for the entire match, was able to dance past the first few defenders of Levante, only for his initial shot to be saved by Ruben. Shortly after, a chance by Levante came from Verza as his shot went wide of Marc-André ter Stegen's goal.

The Argentine striker delivered two free kick attempts, both of which have gone up and wide and hit the crossbar in the first half as he failed to get anything from the set pieces. In the 21st minute, Messi made a run on the left and delivered a pass to Neymar, who subsequently, provided a ball Sandro but failed to make a finish. 

Six minutes later, Levante again had a brilliant opportunity to take the lead. Nabil Ghilas was able to go past everyone in the back, but he was unable to finish correctly on target as his effort went wide of the Barcelona goal. In short, it was not an overall great first half for the defending La Liga champions, who failed to finish on the given opportunities made going forward.

Making amends in the second half

In the second half, it was drastically different as the goals came rolling about the Camp Nou. Five minutes into the half, Barcelona struck first blood. Messi was able to deliver a brilliant ball on the right side of the Levante goal, in which Marc Bartra came running about on the left as he controlled the ball with his chest very neatly and coolly finished with his right-footed shot past Ruben. His celebration was holding up a Rafinha shirt in memory to the injury that the Brazilian suffered in midweek at Roma.

It wouldn’t take long for Barcelona to continue attacking as Neymar had a chance just seconds after the goal, but failed to finish. He would get his redemption four minutes later as his compatriot Dani Alves delivered a ball to the Brazilian winger, and even though it took some initial shots following some defending from Levante, after a couple of deflections, he slotted the ball right home to give the Blaugrana a 2-0 lead.

Barcelona were given a penalty some minutes later after a challenge from Angel Trujillo brought down Neymar in the box. The Argentine made no mistake to add the third as he sent an emphatic finish into the top-right corner for the third Barcelona goal and his first of the game.

Levante would indeed get one back in the 66th minute as Verza was able to clip a cross into the Barcelona were area where Ter Stegen missed it and failed to get a great effort on it as subsitute Victor Casadesus was there to tap in right in.

Barcelona were given a penalty some nine minutes later after Zou Feddal lashed down a challenge on La Pulga. The Argentine would indeed make a mistake as he smashed his kick over the cross bar with a poor effort. Nevertheless, that would disregard anything that happened later as in the last few minutes of the match, he made amends as he ran past the Levante defense, cutting on to his left foot and then slamming a fine effort into the bottom-left corner from 20 yards to give him his brace and three points. 

It took a little fighting in the end, but even with a rotational squad, anything is possible for Luis Enrique’s men. They now travel to Celta to take on Celta Vigo on Wednesday, sitting top of the league and undefeated after four matches with 12 points as Levante take on Eibar.