Barcelona get back to winning ways as they brush Levante aside

BARCELONA got back to their old winning ways as they brushed Levante aside 3-0 at the Camp Nou

Barcelona returned to their old winning ways on, Sunday, September 26, easing the pressure on under-fire coach Ronald Koeman in the process, as they disposed of Levante UD 3-0 at the Camp Nou.

Koeman was absent, serving his two-match touchline ban after his red card in the previous LaLiga game with Cadiz CF, so that left assistant coach Alfred Schreuder in command of operations instead.

Following drab draws in their last two games, a spark was needed to ignite this young Barca squad, with a fit-again 18-year-old Ansu Fati back from a long-term injury, and wearing the famous No10 shirt vacated by Lionel Messi.

Things couldn’t have started better than when Memphis Depay was felled in the box by Nemanja Radoja, for the Dutchman to calmly slot home the opener after just six minutes.

It was another Dutchman, this time Luuk de Jong, on loan from Sevilla, who grabbed his first goal for the club on 15 minutes, racing onto Sergino Dest’s through ball to fire beyond Aitor Fernandez and double the advantage for the Blaugrana.

This was a brilliant show by the Barcelona team, though to be fair, Levante hardly put up any opposition, and had it not been for Fernandez, the result could have been an awful lot higher, but it did take until the 91st minute for a third goal to materialise.

Fati, on as a substitute for De Jong, marked his return with a sublime strike from outside the box, and said after the win, “I couldn’t have imagined a comeback like this. I’m so thankful to the doctors and physios who have been with me throughout all of this, and to the fans who have been unbelievable as well”.

Moving up to fifth in the table, this win should restore confidence to the Catalan giants, who find themselves five points adrift of Real Madrid but with a game in hand, and now travel ti Lisbon on Wednesday, September 29 to play Benfica in the Champions League in the Estadio da Luz, before the visit of Atletico Madrid on the weekend.

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