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Lionel Messi saved Barcelona from one other embarrassing consequence by scoring the decisive purpose in a 1-Zero win over lowly Levante, whereas Real Sociedad returned prime of La Liga on Sunday. Messi struck with 14 minutes remaining of a lacklustre show from Barca on the Camp Nou which can do little to ease fan fears following their 3-Zero hammering by the hands of Juventus midweek. Ronald Koeman’s facet are nonetheless method off the tempo within the title race, 9 factors behind Sociedad who reclaimed first place regardless of solely drawing 1-1 with Eibar. Barcelona do nonetheless have two video games in hand on the Basque outfit.
Atletico are degree on 26 factors with Sociedad and now have two video games in hand whereas Real Madrid are actually simply three factors behind the leaders having performed one much less after beating their native rivals 2-Zero on Saturday.
Villarreal are 4 factors off the lead in fourth after drawing 1-1 at Real Betis, who’re one level behind Barca in ninth.
“The team is working well, they gave the maximum,” stated Koeman.
“We still lack a little confidence in ourselves, in our game, but we had a lot of chances, and I have nothing to say about the attitude of the players in this match.”
Barca managed to power a number of saves from Aitor Fernandez, with the Levante goalkeeper doing significantly properly to push away a stinging shot from Martin Braithwaite within the 16th minute and Antoine Griezmann’s header 5 minutes later.
However the perfect likelihood of the opening interval fell to Jorge de Frutos within the 12th minute, the Spaniard by some means taking pictures straight at Marc-Andre ter Stegen after the ball broke kindly for him proper in entrance of purpose.
Messi saves day
Barca continued to dominate possession within the second half but when something appeared much less threatening, with Fernandez being known as into motion largely for pictures that have been hit straight at him.
However with Levante wanting extra comfy than a facet of their degree ought to on the Camp Nou, Messi saved his staff with a scientific end off the submit after gathering Frenkie de Jong’s go.
It was hardly the kind of show to honour Sergio Busquets’ 593rd look for the membership, which takes him degree at fourth of all time for matches performed for Barca alongside Carles Puyol.
However the three factors are a lift forward of the go to of Sociedad on Wednesday, which is then adopted up by one other dwelling conflict with Valencia on Saturday.
Earlier Ander Barrenetxea gave Real Sociedad the lead in San Sebastian with a thumping strike within the 20th minute, however Sergi Enrich turned dwelling with 25 minutes remaining to ship his staff 10th on 15 factors.
Sociedad would have had an even bigger hole between them and Atletico had Igor Zubeldia’s 80th-minute tap-in not been dominated out by VAR for a particularly tight offside.
Promoted
Sunday’s draw was Sociedad’s sixth in as many video games in all competitions, and got here after one other 1-1 draw at Napoli on Thursday which noticed them squeeze into the final 32 of the Europa League.
Granada gained 1-Zero at Elche in Sunday’s different match, a win that retains them one level forward of Barcelona.
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