Levante 5-4 Barcelona: Valverde's side's unbeaten season collapses
Boateng hit three and Bardhi two as the Valencian side shredded Barca and killed their dreams
37 and out. Well, 43 and out, but Barcelona’s bid to go the 2017-18 season unbeaten collapsed here, at the Ciutat de Valencia. It unravelled dramatically, as Emmanuel Boateng scored a hat-trick and Enis Bardhi netted two, as a rejuvenated Levante celebrated one of the biggest results in their history.
Yes, Philippe Coutinho scored a hat-trick, yes, Barcelona came back from 5-1 down to 5-4, but no, it wasn’t enough. There was no Lionel Messi either, left out of the squad by Ernesto Valverde.
Unlike against Sevilla earlier in the season, where Barca were 2-0 down, he was not on the bench to save them. The league and cup champions will finish the season very sadly indeed, now unable to make history, before Real Madrid have the chance of winning a 13th European Cup.
At least this game was fun in some ways. As fun as it was ridiculous. Levante came out flying, with Jose Luis Morales mugging off the useless Yerry Mina and crossing for Boateng to blast home.
The second goal came from the same source, bundling his way into the area and slamming home.
Philippe Coutinho pulled one back, set up by Gerard Pique - on after Thomas Vermaelen suffered another injury - with a deflected effort from the edge of the box, but it barely stemmed the Levante tide.
Bardhi curled one a sumptuous third, then Boateng got his third, sandwiched by another Bardhi strike. Barcelona were in bits, but Coutinho didn’t give up.
The playmaker fired home his second from close ranged then lashed in a third from distance to pull Barca back into it.
Sergio Busquets was fouled in the box at a corner and Luis Suarez slammed home the penalty to put Barca in touching distance of the comeback.
However it did not materialise, and truth be told, Levante came closer to scoring a sixth.
