Barcelona Fall to Levante; Real Madrid Held to Draw

Date: 03 November 2019 - 21:17

News ID: ۷۲۳۲۴

MADRID (Dispatches) - FC Barcelona crashed to a 3-1 defeat away to Levante on a day that saw Real Madrid also fail to win.
Barca led at halftime through a Leo Messi penalty after Nelson Semedo had been fouled in the penalty area, although shortly afterwards they lost Luis Suarez with an ankle injury and had never really looked in control of the game.
Everything fell apart for Barca in a seven minute spell in the second half which saw Levante play some spectacular football and blow them away with three goals.
Jose Campano equalized on the hour after a poor ball from the back caught the Barca defense out of positon and allowed Borja Mayoral to set him up for an easy goal.
Mayoral crashed home a 25-yard shot from the edge of the area two minutes later and Nemanja Radoja added a third in the 68th minute when his shot from inside the area took a slight deflection off Sergio Busquets into the net.
It is Barca's third away defeat of the season and implies that after recent good results they are still well below what is expected of them.
A win for Real Madrid at home to struggling Betis would have taken Zinedine Zidane's men to the top of the table but after their 5-0 win at home to Leganes, Madrid unable to break down a packed Betis defense.
Eden Hazard had a goal ruled out by the VAR, but overall his display was similar to that of his teammates, starting brightly but running out of steam as the game progressed in the first 0-0 Zidane has ever overseen at the Bernabeu.
Fran Vazquez's first half header put Sevilla at home to Atletico Madrid, before Alvaro Morata's fourth goal in five games rewarded a much-improved second half display for the visitors.
Atletico would have taken all three points but for Tomas Vaclik's excellent save to deny Diego Costa from the penalty spot.
The day started off with Valencia coming back from a goal down to pile the misery on second from bottom Espanyol.
Marc Roca put Espanyol ahead from the penalty spot just after the half hour after a handball in the Valencia area.
However, Dani Parejo equalized midway through the second half with another penalty and Maxi Gomez's diving header saw Valencia complete their fightback with 11 minutes left to play.
****** Barcelona's Lionel Messi controls the ball past Levante's Jorge Miramon during the Spanish La Liga soccer match in Valencia, Spain, Nov.2 , 2019.