Barcelona blew the visitors away with a stunning opening half, scoring six goals in the first 45 minutes. Neymar made his league debut, coming on as a substitute.
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Barcelona sent a clear message to the rest of the world. This team is hungry and they’ve lost their merciful side. They destroyed Levante 7-0 with a near perfect first half of speed, pressure,
aggression when recovering the ball and effectiveness in front of goal. Martino said before the game that he wanted to send “a warning to their rivals”. Message sent, loud and clear. The beast is hungry.
The game, especially the first 45 minutes was an exhibition from the home side; torturing without mercy a Levante side who had no possible way of shoring up the gaps in their porous defence against a side who were defending 65 metres in front of their own goal, with Mascherano in charge. The whole game was being played in the visitor’s half.
More than the goal-fest and the tireless pressure, what really had the Camp Nou excited was seeing Pedro, Alexis and Fàbregas playing at a level not seen for a long time. Pedro was up for it from the first minute; the Chilean took the pressure off himself in the second minute with a goal and the ex-Arsenal player showed he’s a complete midfielder, setting up his team-mates and providing an exhibition of assists.
All that, and on the bench were Neymar, Iniesta and Jordi Alba... with Martino choosing to rest them from the off after the long miles of the pre-season. The scoreboard had nothing more to do than record the effect of Barcelona’s attacks, who after two minutes were ahead when Alexis finished off a speed of light passing move that ripped the Levante defence asunder.
From 1-0 things just got worse for Caparrós’ team. Messi scored the second in 12’ and nine minutes later Leo stole a ball from the Levante defence and Alves ended up stroking home. In spite of having the three points in the bag after just a quarter of the match Barça continued to step on the gas and didn’t give Levante a chance to catch their breath.
Pedro, after a delightful assist from Messi, scored the fourth before the half hour was up and Messi bagged the fifth from the penalty spot after an absurd foul by Pedro López on Adriano, with no danger present for Levante; likely the result of utter frustration. Just before the break Xavi notched the sixth, equalling the best ever first half from the Catalans, recorded on 3 February 2001 against Athletic Bilbao.
In the second half Barça slowed down and Navas in goal for Levante shone on a number of occasions to prevent the scoreline getting worse for his side. The visitor’s defence also started to defend their territory with aggression and Barcelona got the message. They only got one more goal and that was from a gift from the Levante defence. Iniesta and Neymar came on, but did nothing to change the run of the game, which had been decided in the voracious first half from the Catalans.
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