Levante vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from La Liga Game
Barcelona roared back to the top of La Liga on Sunday night with a 5-0 thumping win over Levante. It was their fourth straight victory and clean sheet under Luis Enrique in the 2014-15 league season.
Neymar, Ivan Rakitic, Pedro, Sandro and Lionel Messi all got on the scoresheet in the resounding win away from home, which left Levante stuck to the bottom of the table and still winless in the new campaign.
Here are all the biggest winners and losers from the first league game of the season that saw both Neymar and Messi start up front together.
Winner: Lionel Messi
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He's almost always a winner, but sometimes even more so.
Messi recorded his 100th assist in La Liga, setting up both Neymar and Sandro for their goals on the night, and even though he missed a first-half penalty, he was still instrumental thereafter for much of Barcelona's top attacking play.
A fine chipped finish for his own strike late on in the game was the icing on the cake. It was fully deserved for 90 minutes of hard work, closing down and selfless running alongside his on-the-ball contribution.
Loser: Levante's Entire Attack
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Jose Luis Mendilibar has problems to address at Levante.
Despite a fine mid-table finish in the end last season, Levante are winless this term, having taken just one point from the first four games.
Much more immediately concerning, though, is their total lack of final-third threat; Levante have not scored a single goal in 2014-15 and, dating back into last season, have now gone more than five games without a goal. The last was scored in Match 37 of 2013-14 against Valencia, and they managed just two shots on target against Barcelona, neither of which tested Claudio Bravo.
Winners: Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic
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The midfield of Barcelona clearly needed some sort of alteration this summer, but Luis Enrique has taken the pretty bold step of making that change to be the replacement of legend Xavi.
Andres Iniesta and new signing Ivan Rakitic are the preferred pairing to play ahead of controller Sergio Busquets, and as a creative, ball-retaining duo, they complement each other extremely well and create plenty of openings for their forwards, even against defensive-minded sides.
Iniesta has assumed more freedom and the captain's armband with Xavi on the bench and has started the season in imperious form. He roves the width of the box and is always on hand to receive possession; his final-third play remains as keenly honed as ever. Rakitic has brought more energy and direct running and will bring a goal threat over the long term—his strike against Levante was a great start.
Loser: Jeremy Mathieu
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There weren't too many poor performances to pick out for Barcelona—why would there be in a 5-0 win?—but central defender Jeremy Mathieu was particularly below par, especially in the first half.
Twice he made sloppy errors to let Levante in when the scoreline was 0-0 and 1-0. The second time he committed himself into a challenge and was beaten easily for pace and movement by David Barral. A few poor attempts at clearances in the second half could have ended Barcelona's clean sheet record too.
None of his errors were costly on the night, but with Gerard Pique and Marc Bartra awaiting another chance in the team, it might be for future team-sheets.
Winner: Luis Enrique
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The final winner has to be Barcelona boss Luis Enrique, who continues his perfect start to life back at the club.
Four games, four wins, four clean sheets and 11 goals scored are about as much as he could possibly have hoped for from his side until now, but he has done it all in a style and manner befitting the expectations of him for the entire season ahead, not just for short-term gain.
Youngsters have been handed chances—and have taken them. New signings have bedded in, and big decisions have been made, such as keeping Xavi on the bench or Bravo in goal ahead of the fit-again Marc-Andre ter Stegen. So far, so very, very good for the boss.
