Barcelona bucks Messi missed penalty, cruise to an easy victory over Levante 5-0

Levante 0-5 Barcelona: Lionel Messi on target as table toppers thrash 10-men

The Lionel Messi reinvention continues apace with the four-times Balon d’Or winner showing once again that he is now very much king of the assists for Barcelona.

The Argentine finally got on the score sheet with Barca’s fifth, but more importantly for Luis Enrique's team he broke down the home side’s defence with a glorious pass for Neymar’s opener.

Dropping back into midfield he was the architect of Barcelona's carousel passing on the rain-soaked pitch at the Cuitat de Valencia stadium and when he set up Sandro in the second half it was his sixth assist of the season.

He missed a first-half penalty but finally got on the scoresheet when Levante keeper Jesus Fernandez had a ‘Gary Sprake’ moment throwing the ball, not into his own net as the Leeds keeper did against Liverpool in 1967, but the next worse thing in the circumstances – straight to Messi who scored.

He deserved his goal and his full return to form has helped give Barcelona a 100 per cent record at the start of the season. They are six points clear of Real Madrid and have yet to concede a goal in four league games.

They could have taken an early lead through Jeremy Mathieu but he stabbed a shot with his favoured left foot weakly at the keeper from close range when a right-footed finish would have been preferable.

Barça paid for their failure to take that early lead as Levante grew in confidence. Victor Camarasi played the ball forward to Jose Morales and he raced away from Mathieu but Ivan Rakitic saved the day charging back to make a goal-saving challenge at the far post.

A wet night in Levante can be as tough as the proverbial cold night in Stoke and Barcelona were struggling to impose themselves in the rain – not helped by Neymar’s wayward finishing. He missed a one-on-one with Jesus Fernandez in the Levante goal and then seemed intimidated by the out-rushing keeper as they both went for a lofted Javier Mascherano pass.

The Brazilian was getting plenty of opportunities with Messi starting to impose himself in midfield and finally the opening goal came. Messi played in Neymar with a superb pass and he rounded Fernandez to slot home. It was the Brazilian’s third goal of the season and Messi’s fifth assist.  He has become the new king of the perfectly-weighted through ball in Xavi's absence and his magic had set Barcelona on their way.

He could and should have made it two but shot well wide from the spot after being brought down by Lucas Vyntra. The Greek defender was sent off harshly and now Levante really were in trouble chasing Barcelona’s ten men with their nine outfield players.  Rakitic rifled in from distance to make it two after Rodas’ clearance ran straight to him.

Neymar played very little part in the rest of the game. He fell badly on his left ankle and received lengthy treatment on the far side of the pitch with Doctor Ricard Pruna in attendance.

He got back to his feet and was convinced he would be fine to carry on but the Barça bench had already got Sandro stripped and changed to come on: the Brazilian was not impressed. 

Sandro wasted no time in netting his second goal of the season finding space from yet another Messi assist and stroking home the third. That was the cue for Xavi to replace Sergi Busquets as Barcelona looked to save legs ahead of this week’s midweek fixtures.

The 19-year-old Sandro wasn’t finished either. He set up the next with a pass to send Jordi Alba tearing down the left. He pulled the ball back to Pedro who scored his first goal of the season.

And there was still time left for the wet conditions to get the better of Fernandez whose throw straight to Messi made sure the Barça number ten had his goal for the night in what had been another very convincing Barça win.

Villareal deals Levante a home loss 2-0

Giovanni Dos Santos

ESPN UK Football 

Ikechukwu Uche and Denis Cheryshev were on-target as Villarreal began their Primera Division campaign with an impressive 2-0 win at Levante.

Cheryshev, who is on loan with the Yellow Submarine for the season from Real Madrid, struck five minutes from time to give the visitors an ideal start to their campaign.

Nigerian international Ikechukwu Uche had earlier broken the deadlock in the 55th minute in a match that had had precious few chances up until that point.

Marcelino Garcia Toral's men had made light work in a 3-0 away win over Astana in the first leg of their Europa League play-off tie but they found Levante harder to break down.

Giovani dos Santos' curling strike from just outside the area went over while he struck wide from close range following a good cross from Cheryshev.

Former Tottenham midfielder Dos Santos was in the thick of the action once again, but once again he failed to find the target after firing wide from the edge of the box.

Levante had offered very little going forward in the first half although after the interval they did test visiting goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo, who was equal to Victor Casadesus' drilled effort from 20 yards.

From out of nowhere, though, Villarreal opened the scoring as Uche slotted home from close range following Cani's pass on the right.

Dos Santos then spurned another chance to double Villarreal's lead after he hit a post on the follow-up to Cheryshev's shot being saved by Levante goalkeeper Jesus Fernandez.

Fernandez then easily saved Cheryshev's wild shot from distance although there was nothing he could do with the Russian's close range finish from Moi Gomez's right-wing cross.

Levante valiantly went on the offensive in the closing stages - with Rafael Martins missing the target from a decent position and Casadesus heading against a post in injury time - but it was to no avail as their opponents held on.