Levante 2-1 Barcelona: Coutinho to the rescue

The Brazilian struck late from the spot for the visitors

Barcelona slipped to a 2-1 defeat in the first leg of their Copa del Rey last 16 tie against Levante on Thursday.

Ernesto Valverde shuffled his pack for this one and handed new signing Jeison Murillo a debut, while youngsters Chumi, Juan Miranda and Carles Alena all started.

Levante scored twice in the first half to take the advantage going into the second leg, but Philippe Coutinho’s late penalty will give Barcelona real hope they can turn it around.

FIRST HALF

Levante started the game really strongly and took the lead on three minutes. Ruben Rochina sent in a free-kick and Erick Cabaco headed past Jasper Cillessen.

Levante might have had more too but for Cillessen in the Barcelona goal. He saved from Moses Simon and then brilliantly denied Emmanuel Boateng with a good save on the line.

The hosts kept going though and deservedly doubled their lead on 18 minutes. Boateng found Borja Mayoral and his low shot across goal beat Cillessen.

The goal seemed to rouse Barcelona a little, and they did have chances to pull one back in the first 45 minutes.

The best opportunities fell to Malcom, but he could not beat Aitor in the Levante goal after being sent clean through and was then inches away from converting Ousmane Dembele’s cross right before half-time.

SECOND HALF

Valverde sent on Sergi Roberto for Juan Miranda for the second half, and Clement Lenglet followed just before the hour mark for Chumi.

Barcelona looked a bit more solid at the back but were struggling to create much in the way of serious goal threat at the other end.

Meanwhile, substitute Jose Luis Morales wasted a good chance to make it 3-0 shortly after coming on. He was played through by Mayoral, but Cillessen did enough to put him off.

Denis Suarez was Valverde’s third substitute on the night, and he made the difference with five minutes to go when he was brought down in the box by Coke.

Philippe Coutinho stepped up and slotted the penalty home to halve the deficit and put Barcelona right back in the tie.

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Levante: Aitor; Coke, Cabaco, Postigo, Chema (Jason), Simon; Rochina, Prcic, Campaña; Boateng (Morales), Mayoral.

Goals: Cabaco (4’), Mayoral (18’)

Barcelona: Cillessen; Semedo, Murillo, Chumi (Lenglet), Miranda (Roberto); Vidal, Busquets, Aleñá; Malcom (Denis), Dembélé, Coutinho.

Goal: Coutinho (85’)

Source: barcablaugranes.com