Barcelona followed up their 5-1 Champions League win over Feyenoord in style. The Catalans ended Levante's eight-match unbeaten home run with a 4-2 win.
Head coach Hansi Flick reshuffled his starting XI after the European clash. Eric García, Gerard Martin, Xavi Espart, Fermín Lopez and Anthony Gordon came in for Jules Koundé, Andreas Christensen, João Cancelo, Dani Olmo and Karim Adeyemi.
Barcelona's first shot found the net. Xavi Espart scored his first goal for Barça after surging forward from left-back, driving at the defence and hitting a right-footed effort from the edge of the box. The shot bobbled through four Levante players and past former AZ player Matthew Ryan.
Then Flick's side struck again almost immediately. Raphinha broke clear and raced towards Ryan, rounded the goalkeeper and pulled the ball back from the byline for the arriving Lamine Yamal. The Spaniard smashed the ball into the roof of the net: 0-2.
Almost straight after the break, the Catalan side won a penalty following a clumsy foul by Aïssa Mandi. Yamal stepped up and converted impeccably. The Spanish forward again gave Ryan no chance, firing into the top-left corner for his sixth league goal of the season: 0-3.
Just before the hour mark, Levante should have pulled one back. Victor García beat goalkeeper Juan García with a lovely feint and squared the ball to Ivan Romero, who somehow failed to turn it into an almost empty net. Substitute Christensen cleared off the line and kept the gap at three.
Late on, Levante capitalised on a gift from Barça. Espart played the ball beyond Christensen in the build-up, but the Dane could not get to the pass. Romero intercepted, rounded García and this time rolled it into the empty net: 1-3. Ten minutes later, the tension returned when Brugue cut the deficit to one.
For long spells, the game looked done. Flick's side seemed set to take the three points back to Barcelona without trouble. Then it turned nervy. Adeyemi killed it after a fine dribble and restored the two-goal lead: 2-4. Barça have now made it five straight league wins and sit three points clear of second-placed Real Madrid.