Luuk saves Barça again in extremis

It seemed that the Barcelona was going to definitively say goodbye to LaLiga at the Ciutat de València when Luke de Jong he returned to save Barça, as he had done in Weather in Cornellà o en Mallorca. The Barcelona team had turned around a surprising 1-0 with the providential entry of Pedri Y Gaviwhich restored clairvoyance to the team of Xavi, lost for many minutes in the Levante field. The ‘granota’ advanced through a penalty shot by Morales, missed a second maximum penalty shortly after and, immediately afterwards, two goals from Aubameyangto the center of DembeleY Pedriafter GaviThey came back from the game. And madness came: another penalty, committed by Lenglet in his first appearance after replacing an unlucky Alvesreturned to put the tie on the scoreboard and, then, the head of Luke de Jong It was providential for Barçaafter the enormous Levante effort.

[+] See the summary of the match

Once again, a match in the Levante It was a pim-pam-pun difficult for Barcelona to control. Pedri had been the beacon of the team Xavi looking for the comeback. This time, coming off the bench, he always had to enter the rotations. between him and Gavi they had fixed the mess that an intense Levante had created. Y Gavi he had the 2-3 in another breakaway, but his shot was repelled by the goalkeeper, Cardenas.

After the effort of Germany and without respite for the Barcelona team, he returned Xavi to give breaks and entered Nico as inside. Although after the 1-0 Xavi changed the two interiors, neither one nor the other should be pointed out as guilty, although they did not provide solutions to the general lack of farsightedness of the Barcelona team during an hour of the game. What happened is that the Levante he seeks to cling to life and acted accordingly in each ball, while the Barcelona team did not get into the game, perhaps because they have lost the spark of a few weeks ago, a victim in part of the wear and tear of so many games, evident in some footballers. A couple of weak shots from Ferran and another, slightly off, from Frenkie It was all the Barcelona baggage in a first part in which he was widely surpassed by him until a couple of days ago bottom of the First Division.

Gallery

Boosted by his public, the Levante went out for a new feat before the Barcelona. He bit in the man-to-man marking and looked for the back of the Barcelona defense. After a couple of initial warnings as a result of numerous losses, especially one of Dani Alvesthe Commander Morales stood before Araujo and found a way to attend Campaignwhose auction was placed but loose, relatively easy for Ter Stegen.

highly demanded Araujo versus Moralesthe personality of a growing confident Eric was vital in safeguarding the inaccuracies of his teammates as Barcelona began to try to push the Levante to your plot. The first occasion of Barça It was from Torres, after a long pass from To have The steps. He won the back of the central defenders diagonally, but the shot was weak. Despite this apparent recovery of Barcelona, ​​Levante took a breather and returned to the fray.

Araujo was exposed by the Commander Morales In a play in which the Granota captain entered the axis, he easily left Alvesfaced Araujochanged his rhythm and sat him down, also beat Alba and threw a subtle Vaseline that beat To have The steps… but not to Eric, who took the ball out when it was already slipping. It was Levante’s best chance in the first half and the best action of a very sharp Morales.

Overwhelmed the low rhythm of the Barcelona by the impetus of Levantethe party was still Barça, not Barcelona: those of Xavi They were lilac. Araujobrave, he overcame that action of Morales and, a few minutes later, he avoided a shot from the small area of ​​​​the other member of the pair of forwards, Roger. The Uruguayan tried to maintain, while Alves He limped visibly after a sprained ankle in an attack action and, towards the end of the first half, in a spin while clearing the ball.

Penalty hat trick

The City of Valencia roared when Morales, from eleven meters, finally advanced to Levante, despite the fact that the second half had started with a Barcelona that wanted to react. Shortly after a header from Ferran to center of Dembelethe best action of Barça, with a save from Cárdenas, the Levante Commander put his team ahead: a penalty, absurd, but a penalty, from Alves to Son, one of the best who transformed Morales.

incomprehensibly, Morales he did not throw the second penalty with which, shortly after, the referee punished Barcelona again. he threw it Roger and failed it. she had committed Ericby hand in the jump precisely before Rogerand stopped it Ter Stegen. At that time he didn’t seem like it, but Roger had just spared Barcelona and Levante paid dearly for it.

From 1-0 to 1-2, little more than ten minutes passed in which everything happened: he missed the second penalty, the Levantethey entered Pedri Y Gavi and they turned Barcelona around like a sock. Suddenly the set of Xavi He moved the ball, created spaces and entered the band. An action in the area of Pedri ended up in the middle of Dembele and header on goal Aubameyangboth risen from the living dead. And, immediately afterwards, play Gavi on the right and center to the front for the shot on goal by Pedri. The penalty of Lenglet seemed to ruin the comeback, but then Alba crossed so that Luke de Jong save Barcelona again from Xaviupside down and going out desperately.

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