Barcelona's Perfect Start Survives Levante Scare

Barcelona walked out of Levante with a 4-2 win, a perfect record still intact and a coach who refused to hide behind the scoreline.

It was wild at times. Too wild for Hansi Flick’s taste.

Lamine Yamal struck twice, Xavi Espart scored his first senior goal and Karim Adeyemi came off the bench to kill the game. Five wins from five, 21 goals scored, and yet the story of the night was as much about control lost as it was about attacking brilliance found.

Flick: “The mistake was mine”

Barcelona’s defence creaked again. Levante sensed it, and for long spells the game felt far more open than a title contender would want.

Flick did not pretend otherwise. He even took the first hit himself.

“We are happy because in the end we won 4-2. I think the goals we conceded came from mistakes we made, but for the first goal, I think the mistake was mine,” he admitted, pointing to a delayed substitution that backfired.

“We wanted to substitute Xavi because he was having some cramps, and I said: ‘Okay, let’s wait until the next stoppage.’ Maybe if we had changed him at that moment, we would not have conceded that goal.”

That small decision, that hesitation, opened the door. Levante walked through it.

Barcelona still found enough firepower to blow the game open again, but the warning was loud.

Best-ever start matched, standards still rising

The win sees Barça equal the club’s best-ever start to a season, but Flick refused to get swept up in the numbers.

“I am proud. I am proud of my team, and I am proud of the club. But in the end, this is only the beginning. I do not look too much at the numbers, because they also belong to the past.”

The present tells a different story: 21 goals in five games, a frontline that can score from everywhere, and a coach who keeps circling back to the other side of the ball.

“Yes, of course,” he said when asked about the attacking output, “but also the way we defend is important. Normally, they pressed us very well today. I also think the pitch was not in the best condition. So it was not an easy match.”

The message was clear. You can’t live off goals alone.

“If you do not give 100%, things like this happen,” he warned, referring to the dips in intensity that let Levante back into the contest.

Espart’s first goal, Adeyemi’s reminder

On a chaotic night, two individual stories stood out.

Xavi Espart, trusted again by Flick, marked the occasion with his first senior goal for Barcelona. It was a moment that felt like confirmation rather than surprise for his coach.

“At the moment he is doing well. Technically he is good, tactically as well. And physically he is 100% ready and he is proving it. He is playing at a great level,” Flick said.

Then came Adeyemi.

Introduced late, he delivered the kind of ruthless, decisive finish that turns a nervous ending into a comfortable one.

“No, I am not surprised, because when he is focused, he is a fantastic player. That is what he has to deliver,” Flick insisted.

“Especially with the fourth goal, he was fantastic. In that situation you can see that he has something special.”

On a night when Barcelona’s structure wobbled, their depth did not. Espart and Adeyemi stepped in, stepped up, and left their mark.

Gordon’s drought, coach’s backing

Not everyone found the net. Anthony Gordon’s wait for a goal in a Barcelona shirt goes on, and this was not his sharpest outing.

Flick, though, did not hesitate to back him publicly.

“I think Anthony gives us a lot, especially when he receives the ball. He is always able to control it and then pass it to one of our players, and therefore keep possession,” he said.

“Of course, as an attacker, when you have chances, you want to score. I hope he scores very soon, because that will also help him integrate completely. But I am happy with him, and I really appreciate what he gives us.”

Gordon has been racking up assists this season, even if this game did not showcase his best. Adeyemi did what Gordon could not on the night, but Flick’s words made one thing clear: both remain central to his plans on the left wing.

Perfect record, imperfect performance

Barcelona leave Levante with five wins from five, a front line in form and a coach who is already demanding more.

The depth is there. The goals are there. The standards, under Flick, are rising game by game.

The question now is not whether Barça can win like this. They clearly can.

It’s how long they can keep living on the edge before those defensive cracks demand a heavier price.