Barcelona maintained their perfect start to the La Liga season with a 4-2 victory over Levante on Sunday in Valencia. The win extended Barcelona’s unbeaten run to five matches and allowed them to reestablish a three-point lead at the top of the table, ahead of Real Madrid, who secured a win over Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.

The match saw Barcelona take an early advantage when Xavi Espart opened the scoring. Lamine Yamal then doubled the lead before converting a penalty early in the second half to make it 3-0. Despite Barcelona’s strong start, Levante mounted a late comeback with goals from Ivan Romero and Roger Brugue, narrowing the deficit and exposing some defensive vulnerabilities in the visitors’ game.

Barcelona substitute Karim Adeyemi sealed the victory in stoppage time with a solo effort, sprinting past defenders and beating Levante goalkeeper Mathew Ryan to restore a two-goal lead.

Manager Hansi Flick acknowledged that the team struggled in the second half. “It was not our best game of course. We had a great start. In the second half we struggled a little bit,” he told reporters. Flick emphasized the need to improve defensively despite being satisfied with the overall result. “We have to fight to improve. It’s normal, we have situations we have to make better, much better. We’ll tell the team and go on to the next match, but with the result I’m happy.”

Defender Eric Garcia also reflected on the challenges faced in the latter stages of the match. Speaking to Movistar, he noted, “It was a hard game, we did make it harder for ourselves than it needed to be. But it has to teach us something – if you give any opponent a bit of breathing room they get on top of you.”

Elsewhere in the league, Atletico Madrid secured a 3-0 win over Real Sociedad with three late goals, moving them into joint-third place in the standings. The victories for Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have intensified the competition at the top of La Liga early in the season.