Barcelona’s title bid suffered a blow as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Levante last night.
The title holders ran out 7-0 winners when the teams met on the opening day of the season, but this time a goal from Loukas Vyntra was cancelled out by Gerard Pique as the hosts claimed a famous point to boost their confidence ahead of the upcoming Copa del Rey quarterfinal between the sides.
Levante took a shock early lead as Barca once again demonstrated their glaring weakness when defending set-pieces.
Andreas Ivanschitz delivered a corner from the left, and central defender Vyntra shrugged off a challenge from Cesc Fabregas to send a powerful downward header beyond Victor Valdes.
But Barca soon drew level in almost identical circumstances, with Xavi swinging over a left-wing corner and Pique rising high to guide a perfectly placed header into the bottom right corner for the rare sight of a Barca goal from a corner.
Thereafter a predictable and almost unbroken pattern of play set in, with Barca enjoying full control of possession as Levante packed the edge of their penalty area with chances few and far between.
The second half got underway with Fabregas stinging the hands of Navas with a fierce 20-yard strike, before Xavi curled a shot high and wide.
Levante survived a dramatic double miss after an hour, when Messi ran onto Fabregas’ clever back heel to race into the area but had his shot well saved by Navas, and home skipper Juanfran then did brilliantly to clear Xavi’s close-range followup off the line.
Messi soon came close again when Jordi Alba overlapped down the left and pulled back a clever cross for the Argentine, whose goalbound strike was deflected wide by the never-say-die Juanfran.
Pedro Lopez had a volley from a right-wing cross deflected wide and Ivanschitz headed too close to Valdes as Levante enjoyed a brief break from their defensive duties, but the respite was brief and Barca pushed hard for the all-important winner.
Levante were looking for the counter-attack to exploit gaps in the visiting defence, and from one break Ivanschitz came close again with a well struck effort from 25 yards that Valdes did well to repel with a flying save.
Barca boss Tata Martino introduced fresh legs in the form of youngsters Sergi Roberto, Cristian Tello and Jean Marie Dongou, but the final 10 minutes arrived with the game still tied and the visitors becoming increasingly desperate.
The changes nearly bore fruit with five minutes remaining when Tello cut inside from the left to send a curler towards the bottom corner, but Navas dived to his left to make a brilliant save. Barca were hugely frustrated and both sides of Madrid delighted
