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Jan 20, 2014

Barca dropped two points away from home against Levante which could see them lose the top position in the La Liga. We lie on top with one point ahead of Real Madrid after the draw but that could all change depending on how Atletico perform against sevilla later in the night. It was an extremely difficult struggle especially after going down so early in the match. Barca found it extremely difficult to break the well organised defense and whenever we came close the keeper, Navas and defender Juanfran pulled off out of the world saves. Martino coontinued with his rotation policy, this time making a number of changes from the side which started against Getafe midweek. Messi started his first league game of 2014 and partnered Pedro and Alexis. Cesc, Busquets and Xavi made the midfield trio. The defense had Montoya, Pique, Mascherano and Alba guarding the goal infront of Valdes.

Levante started with a two line four man defense to diffuse the danger possessed by our forward line. That resulted in the game having a subdued start, but that was all changed when in the 10th minute. Exactly with ten minutes on the clock, Levante won a corner kick and as all of us feared the defense was caught completely out and we conceded an early goal to Levante; Vyntra being the goal scorer. That goal woke us a bit as Messi had a shot blocked by Juanfran in the very next minute after the restart. In the 17th minute Pedro had Barca's first shot on target; to be honest it was too weak to defeat Navas, one of the best keeper's of this season. In the 19th minute Gerard Pique equalised for Barca, from an unlikely source - a brilliant header from a Xavi Corner. In the 36th minute Messi led a counter attack with a long ball to Pedro, who passed to Xavi who in turn drilled the shot wide. In the 41st minute Messi had a curling free kick wide off the post. The first half ende with no further action. Even though we were getting into the game a bit twoards the end, Levante's organisation was really making us struggle.

In the 49th minute Cesc sent a floating over head ball putting Sanchez in front, but Alexis took a second more to finish and for Navas, the Levante keeper that was enough to clear the danger. In the 55th minute Fabregas saw his long range effort punched out of danger by Navas. It was clear that we were clearly getting more into the game. Martino made some tactical changes with Messi dropping deep into the wings dragging his marker and link with midfield and most of the ball were played feeding on Alexis pace. In the 59th minute Levante keeper and Juanfran made a tripple save between them to deny Barca taking the lead. Messi played a lovely 1-2 with Cesc before unleasing a shot which was blocked by Navas dive, the rebound fell to xavi whose shot was blocked off the line by Juanfran, again the rebound fell to Messi's whose header was acrobatically saved by a retreating Navas. In the 62nd minute Juanfrann made another last ditch block to deny Lionel Messi the goal. In the 69th minute Valdes did really well to save a header off a brilliant Levante counter attack. In the 72nd minute Martino made his first change with Sergi Roberto coming in for Cesc Fabregas. In the 77th minute Valdes was forced to make a brilliant diving save to deny Ivanschitz. The very next minute Tello came in for Pedro. In the 84th minute Xavi was taken off for Dongou. In the 85th minute Tello curler into the wide corner was kept out by Navas.

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