Barcelona’s hopes of obtaining ‘Invincible’ status came crashing to an end as Levante held on to secure a stunning 5-4 win at the Estadi Ciutat de Valencia on Sunday night with only one match to spare to the end of the La Liga games.
Philippe Coutinho struck a hat-trick (38, 59, 64), but it was not enough as the La Liga champions’ hopes of going the season unbeaten ended in their penultimate match, Skysports reported.
Emmanuel Boateng scored a treble for the hosts (9, 30, 49), adding to Enis Bardhi’s double (46, 56) as Ernesto Valverde’s side lost for the first time in 43 league matches.
A Luis Suarez penalty (71) set up a frantic finale, but Levante clung on to a famous victory to end Barcelona’s dream of writing their name into the history books.
The night without Messi, pulled the sweet dream of finishing the league invincibly and replaced it with the nightmare of losing the game to a team from the bottom of the league table.
Despite the loss, Barca set a new record for unbeaten run in the history of La Liga for 36 games. The previous record belonged to Real Sociedad in 1979-80 season, the team was unbeaten for 32 games.
Barca is atop the La Liga table with 90 points from 37 played matches and Levante is 15th with 46 points from equal played matches as Barca.
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