Messi is silent, Barca is held back by Levante

Barca were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by Levante. The Ciutat Stadium witnessed the biggest shock in La Liga since the beginning of 2014. With this draw, Barca is only 1 point ahead of Real on the rankings.

Messi helpless against Levante's dense defense

GOAL:

Levante:Loukas Vyntra (10')

Barca: Pique (19')

In the first leg,Barcaeasily crushed Levante 7-0. However, at Ciutat this morning, things did not go as smoothly for coach Martino's team as they did 5 months ago. The ball possession rate was still superior, up to 72% in the first half, but Barca encountered many difficulties against Levante's dense defense.

Even the surprise happened in the 10th minute, when Vyntra took advantage of the laxity of Barca's defenders, jumped high to head the ball to open the score for the home team. Once again, Barca exposed their weakness in high balls.

After being doused with cold water, Barca rose up strongly. And just 9 minutes later, they had an equalizer. From a corner kick by Xavi, center-back Pique joined the attack and finished accurately, bringing the match back to the starting line. It is worth mentioning that this was the first time Barca scored from a corner kick in La Liga since the beginning of the season.

With the equalizer, it seemed that Barca would play more enthusiastically. However, what happened in the rest of the first half continued to be a rather deadlocked game for the La Liga champions. They launched 7 shots, but only 2 were on target and did not create any notable situations.

It was not until the second half that Barca began to create clear opportunities. In the 58th minute, a central attacking combination between Xavi and Messi created conditions forMessifacing goalkeeper Navas. However, the Argentine star could not beat Navas in the final shot. 4 minutes later, Messi had a good shot but center back Juanfran used his whole body to block it. The impatience and impatience began to show in coach Martino's team.

But the more eager they were to score, the more Barca showed their deadlock. At the end of the match,Coach MartinoSergi Roberto and Tello were sent onto the field in the hope of breathing new life into the attack. However, there was still no breakthrough. Despite many attacks without scoring, Barca almost received a counterattack from Levante after counter-attacks in the 69th and 77th minutes.

Held to a 1-1 draw, Martino had reason to be disappointed with his players' performance. To draw this match, Barca only had 51 points after 20 rounds and Real had reduced the gap to 1 point.

LINEUP

Levante:Navas, Navaroo, Vyntra, El Zhar (Angel, 56'), Ruben (Issam El Adoua, 73'), Juanfran, Nikos, Pedro Lopez, Ivanschitz (Pinto, 87'), Diop, Simao.

Barca:Valdes, Montoya, Pique, Mascherano, Alba, Busquets, Xavi (Jean Marie Dongou, 84'), Fabregas (Sergi Roberto, 73'), Pedro (Tello, 77'), Messi, Sanchez.

According to Bongdaplus