Barcelona‘s hopes for an unbeaten season have been dashed by Spain’s in-form side.
Levante won its fifth league match in a row Sunday, topping Barcelona 5-4 courtesy of an Emmanuel Boateng treble and an Enis Bardhi brace.
Boateng became the first player to record a La Liga hat-trick against Barcelona since Diego Forlan did so in 2005, while Philippe Coutinho produced his first trio of goals in a Blaugrana strip during a frenetic nine-goal affair.
FT 5-4: Barcelona lose their first La Liga match of the season. They were unbeaten in a La Liga record 43 matches, since losing 2-0 at Málaga on 8 April 2017.
— Gracenote Live (@GracenoteLive) May 13, 2018
The host took the lead inside of 10 minutes when Boateng benefitted from Marc-Andre ter Stegen‘s gaffe from close range. The Valencia outfit should have made it 2-0 moments later, but winger Bardhi rang the bar with a one-touch effort that the German shot-stopper knew little about.
Boateng would get Levante’s second on the half-hour mark, hugging the offside line before running onto Sasa Lukic‘s incisive through ball. The 21-year-old then rounded Ter Stegen before …read more