Another brace for Yamal as Barca stays perfect
Lamine Yamal scored another brace as Barcelona held off a late Levante fightback for a fifth straight win at the start of the LaLiga season, triumphing 4-2.
Eight days on from his two-goal display at Valencia, Yamal produced another sterling showing in the same city, having also netted against Feyenoord in the Champions League.
But it was 19 year-old full-back Xavi Espart who made the breakthrough, scoring his first senior goal after five minutes. A one-touch move culminated in Raphinha offloading to the youngster, and his shot from the edge of the area squirmed into the bottom-left corner.
Raphinha also created Barca's second goal in the 19th minute, latching onto Fermin Lopez's through-ball and rounding Mathew Ryan. Though the Brazilian was forced wide to the left, his cutback put the ball on a plate for Yamal, who could not miss.
Levante had twice as many shots as Barcelona in the first half (six to three), but Joan Garcia was never unduly troubled, and Hansi Flick's team had a third goal three minutes into the second period.
Aissa Mandi may have handled the ball while grounded in his own area, but in any case, he got up and bundled Yamal over, with the Ballon d'Or contender blasting the resulting spot-kick into the left side of the goal.
Raphinha and Ivan Romero passed up chances at either end, but the Levante substitute did inspire some late hope when Espart committed the error of passing loosely across his own box, rounding Garcia to slot into an unguarded net.
Home captain Roger Brugue teed up a grandstand finish when his bustling run resulted in Garcia blocking his initial shot, only to gift him a simple finish on the rebound, but Barca made the points safe when substitute Karim Adeyemi skipped infield from the left, beat Mandi with a clever feint, then stroked home.
Lamine Yamal Nasraoui Ebana
FC Barcelona
