Barça punishes the bottom team in Liga F without breaking a sweat

BarcelonaThe visit to the ground of bottom-placed Levante in La Liga was meant to be the perfect opportunity to close out a demanding few weeks in the best possible way. And so it was. Pere Romeu's Barça defeated the Valencian side and head into the international break with a six-point cushion over Real Sociedad. It's been a week of two matches and real clashes, like the recent one away to Chelsea, so changes were expected in the Blaugrana lineup, who started without Aitana, Alexia, and Graham-Hansen. Pajor and Pina, however, paved the way and are now tied for the top scorers' spot in the league.

The match was one-sided. Beyond a few counter-attacks from the home side, Levante could do little more than defend to avoid a rout. Not long ago, Levante was a project that competed against Barça, but this year the difference between the two projects is enormous, and the Polish striker Pajor opened the scoring early in the game. Barça could have scored more goals, but Claudia Pina proved she's human and missed a penalty. She doesn't usually miss, though.

Vicky López was a constant threat down the right flank, and the Portuguese player Kika was making waves. In fact, she scored the second goal after a great assist from Pina in the second half, after Laia Alexandri had already come on for Claudia Serrajordi. Anna Álvarez, the young Levante goalkeeper making her La Liga debut, made some commendable saves, but when Romeu requested a VAR review in the 70th minute, she was unable to stop Clàudia Pina's second penalty, which she converted to make it 0-3. Pina was eager to redeem herself after missing the first-half penalty. In fact, Barça would score a fourth, but it wasn't awarded due to a strange offside call that only the referee saw. This came in a few minutes when Aitana and Alexia had already entered the game simultaneously, maintaining a high level of play and much to the delight of the thousands of spectators present, who were able to see the two Ballon d'Or winners in action. Alexia would then have time to win another penalty, which she converted herself: it was 0-4.

A perfect match, then, in which Gemma Font didn't concede a single goal on the day she played in place of Cata Coll, and with some good moments from youngsters like Carla Julià and an indefatigable Aïcha Camara.