BARCELONA produced a stunning late comeback to defeat newly-promoted Levante 3-2 in a dramatic Liga encounter on Saturday.
The champions found themselves trailing by two goals at halftime after Ivan Romero and Jose Luis Morales scored for the hosts.
Pedri and Ferran Torres struck twice in quick succession after the interval to level the match for Hansi Flick’s side.
“They made it very difficult for us, we have to improve a lot,“ Flick told his post-match press conference.
An Unai Elgezabal own-goal in injury time completed the turnaround on a near-waterlogged pitch.
Levante went ahead on 15 minutes when the ball was knocked across the Barcelona box to Romero, who bamboozled Pau Cubarsi with a superb shoulder-drop before rifling past new signing Joan Garcia.
Torres looked certain to level in the 37th minute when Pedri’s deft first-time pass found the forward unmarked in the box, but his fierce strike rattled the bar rather than the net.
Morales, 38, duly doubled Levante’s lead from 12 yards seven minutes into first-half added time after a VAR intervention awarded a penalty.
“They always tell me to shoot and look, in the first half I had a shot like a kid and in the second half I was able to score,“ the 22-year-old told Movistar.
Flick’s side were back level three minutes later when Torres made amends for his earlier miss with a close-range finish from a corner.
But Levante’s luck failed to hold as Yamal floated in a cross from the right in the 91st minute which Elgezabal glanced into his own net under pressure from Torres.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid dropped more points after drawing 1-1 with promoted Elche, leaving them with just one point from two matches.
“We wanted to win, we deserved to win the match,“ said Diego Simeone.
“From the Espanyol match to today’s match, there was improvement. They played better. The result is not there but we need to work, be patient.”
Alexander Sorloth gave Atletico an early lead before Rafa Mir equalised for Elche with a crisp finish on the counter-attack.
Diego Simeone was booked deep in stoppage time for his frustrated reaction to a penalty not being given following a tussle in the box.
Earlier, Mallorca and Celta Vigo shared the spoils when Mateu Morey’s late leveller for the home side cancelled out Javi Rueda’s first-half opener. – AFP
