Levante 3-1 Barcelona: 4 talking points as the Catalans suffer shock defeat | LaLiga 2019-2020

Barcelona fell to a shock 3-1 defeat to Levante at the Estadi Ciudad de Valencia, with goals from Jose Campana, Borja Mayoral, and Nemanja Radoja condemning the Catalans to their third defeat of the campaign.

Club captain Lionel Messi had put the visitors ahead from the spot with his fifth goal of the season - and 500th left-footed goal for Barcelona - after Nelson Semedo had been felled in the box by Jorge Miramon to seemingly set things in motion for another routine win.

However, an eight-minute blitz in the second half by the hosts saw Paco Lopez's men complete the comeback and pick up all three points.

The result was not what Barcelona would have bargained for heading into this fixture and in this piece, we shall be highlighting four talking points from the LaLiga game.

#4 Barcelona's good run of form ended

This season started poorly for Ernesto Valverde's men, with the Blaugrana picking up just seven points from their opening five fixtures.

However, the return of Lionel Messi to the fold sparked a turnaround in their fortunes and with the Argentine's inspiration, they embarked on a seven-match winning run in all competitions which saw them climb to the summit of LaLiga.

It was in this form that Barcelona came into the fixture against Levante and given the difference in recent results between both sides, a victory was largely expected for the Blaugrana.

When Messi - fresh from a return to the Argentine squad - put them ahead in the 37th minute, all seemed to be on course for an eighth consecutive win, but the hosts had other ideas.

While not entirely disastrous to their title defence, the loss in momentum from Barcelona means that arch-rivals Real Madrid have a chance to usurp them at the top of the table when they host Real Betis in the day's late kickoff.

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