Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season with a hard-fought 4-2 La Liga victory over Levante in Valencia on Sunday.
Levante found themselves two goals down within 19 minutes after swift play from Barcelona led to goals for Xavi Espart and Lamine Yamal. The home side then rallied, finishing the half with six shots to Barcelona’s three.
Just 42 seconds into the second half, Barcelona were awarded a penalty, won and converted by Lamine Yamal. The 19-year-old now has three doubles in his past three La Liga matches.
An errant pass from Espart allowed Levante forward Iván Romero to round goalkeeper Joan García and pass the ball into the net with 12 minutes to go. With two minutes remaining, Roger Brugue burst through multiple Barcelona challenges to score a second for Levante.
The home side’s hopes of a draw were definitively ended by a mazy run and finish from Karim Adeyemi in the 93rd minute.
Barcelona are alone at the top of the table with five wins from five, three points ahead of Real Madrid.
RB Leipzig bounced back from their Champions League defeat at Como by thumping strugglers Hamburg 5-0 at home in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Norway winger Antonio Nusa was the best of the bunch for the hosts, scoring one goal and setting up two more, including one for Christopher Nkunku, the French winger’s first since returning to Leipzig in August.
Tidiam Gomis, Willi Orban and Romulo also got on the scoresheet for Leipzig, who climbed to fourth with the victory.
“It’s easy to look into the past too much. You lost two games. It’s difficult, but you have to look forward,” Nusa said.
“Today we had to perform and we did, so I think we had a good balance of not thinking too much of the past, but trying to attack today and I think we did it.”
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Hamburg’s third big defeat in their third league match this campaign leaves the six-time German champions in bottom spot in the table.
Later on Sunday in Spain, Getafe host Deportivo A Coruña before Atlético Madrid visit Real Sociedad.
In the big Bundesliga game, unbeaten Bayern Munich travel to promoted Elversberg, who have won their first two matches. In Italy, Napoli host Bologna, while Juventus are at Sassuolo. Paris Saint-Germain – with just two points from their first three games – will try to kickstart their Ligue 1 campaign at Brest.
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