🏏 Sun, 13 Sep 2026 16:15 CEST
Levante UD
vs
FC Barcelona
4-4-2 vs 4-3-3
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Levante sit 13th on five points from four matches (1-2-1, five scored and five conceded for a level goal difference) and welcome a Barcelona side that has won all four of its league games. The visitors top the table on 12 points with 17 goals scored and only two conceded, edging Real Madrid, who also have 12 points but from five matches and with a +10 goal difference, on goals. Any slip here would hand the initiative back to their rivals.
- The breakdown of Levante's scoring is striking: all five of their league goals arrived in a single home game, the 5-2 win over Real Betis on matchday three. Their three away trips produced nothing at all, a 0-3 defeat at Espanyol followed by goalless draws at Osasuna and Malaga. Whatever attacking spark they have has only shown itself at home, which makes this fixture one of their better chances to add points.
- Barcelona, by contrast, have been ruthless everywhere. At home they beat Athletic Club 2-0 on the opening weekend and Rayo Vallecano 5-2 in round three; on the road they won 5-0 at Elche and 5-0 at Valencia. Seventeen goals in four matches is better than four per game, and the fact that both five-goal hauls came on the road will not comfort a Levante side that has conceded five in total, two clean sheets included.
- The shape battle is 4-4-2 against 4-3-3. Levante will try to squeeze space with a flat midfield four in front of two strikers, but Barcelona's midfield trio is formidable: Rodri, the 30-year-old, 191cm holding midfielder who won the 2024 Ballon d'Or after coming through Villarreal and Atletico Madrid, is flanked by Pedri, 23, the Las Palmas product whose turns in tight areas set the tempo, and Fermin Lopez, also 23, the Linares Deportivo graduate who finished as top scorer at the Paris Olympics.
- The headline duel is Lamine Yamal against Levante left-back Manu Sanchez. Yamal, still only 19, made his first-team debut at 15 and set the record as the youngest player at EURO 2024; left-footed and playing off the right, he hurts teams by cutting inside for shots and through balls. Sanchez, 26 and just 171cm, is a left-footed Atletico Madrid academy graduate who sharpened his La Liga experience during loan spells at Osasuna and is back at Levante, this time on loan from Celta Vigo.
- Levante goalkeeper Pablo Cunat faces his old club. The 24-year-old, 188cm keeper came through Barcelona's La Masia before joining Levante's academy and gaining senior minutes on loan at Amorebieta and Cartagena, but he starts on the bench here. The gloves belong to Australia international Mat Ryan, 34, whose career has taken in Brighton, Arsenal, Real Sociedad, Valencia, Club Brugge and Genk, and whose reflexes will be tested by an attack that has already scored 17 times in four rounds.
- Hugo Sotelo carries his own storyline into the centre of midfield. The 22-year-old Celta Vigo academy product made his La Liga debut against Barcelona at the age of 17 and is valued for his composure in possession and passing accuracy. His partner is Dani Requena, another 22-year-old, a 186cm midfielder who came through Villarreal's system with a spell at Cordoba. How long that young pairing can hold the middle against Rodri and Pedri may decide the game.
- Experience anchors the Levante back line. Aissa Mandi, 34, is an Algeria international who was raised at Reims and spent five seasons at Real Betis plus a stint at Villarreal, giving him a decade of La Liga know-how and genuine presence in the air. Beside him is Dela, 27, a Real Madrid Castilla graduate who arrived via Villarreal and specialises in one-on-one defending, while right-back Jeremy Toljan, 32, brings Bundesliga and Serie A mileage from Hoffenheim, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic and Sassuolo.
- Barcelona have conceded just twice in four games. Joan Garcia, the 25-year-old, 193cm goalkeeper who once led the league in saves at Espanyol and won gold at the Paris Olympics, is behind a back four of 19-year-old Pau Cubarsi, whose reading of the game earned him a starting role, and Eric Garcia, 25, who returned after spells at Girona and Manchester City. Gerard Martin, a 186cm left-footer, takes the left flank, with La Masia product Xavier Espart, a treble winner with the Juvenil A side, on the right.
- The benches tell their own story. Barcelona can introduce Dani Olmo, the 28-year-old who was top scorer at EURO 2024, 19-year-old 193cm midfielder Marc Bernal, Joao Cancelo, 32, with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Inter behind him, and Champions League winner Andreas Christensen, 30. Levante counter with Ivan Romero, 25, a Sevilla academy forward who earned his move after a loan at Tenerife, and Oriol Rey, 28, another La Masia graduate who can cover both midfield and centre-back.