Andres Iniesta played a part in all 4 of the goals as the Catalans inflicted a heavy loss upon Levante.
With Real Madrid losing 1-0, earlier to Real Betis, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 had a great chance to extend their lead at the top of the table to a potential 11 points over the capital side.
The Blaugrana’s had a tricky travel trip to a Levante side, who had done extremely well this season and were performing above all expectations.
Tito Vilanova shaped up his strongest Barcelona side for the fixture as the Catalan defence boasted all their first choice back four, with Pique and Puyol returning to pair in the league after a long time.
Busquets, Xavi and Fabregas formed the midfield while Iniesta, Messi and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pedro-c29582 started upfront.
Levante fielded a defensive minded side as they looked set to adapt to a park-the-bus approach, and looked forward to gain anything from the match via quick counter attacking.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dani-Alves-c9869 was unfortunate to pick up yet another injury as he was forced off the pitch with less than fifteen minutes on the clock; Martin Montoya replaced the Brazilian to give the Barcelona side a true La Masia look.
Both the teams put up a good performance in the first half, Levante executing their plan to perfection, but Barcelona, despite keeping a fair amount of the possession, could not convert it to goals.
The start of the second half saw Iniesta explode to life as he started to torture the deep lying Levante defence. His first contribution being a defence splitting pass to Messi, who made no mistake by chipping the goalkeeper and the Argentine put Barca 1-0
up.
It was Iniesta’s mesmerizing footwork at the touchline which resulted in the Catalan’s 2nd goal as after all the good work, the Spanish midfielder passed in for Messi to slot it into the bottom corner of the Levante goal - 2-0 to Barca!
Iniesta wasn’t finished there, as he got the goal that he truly deserved for himself as he riffled in a shot from the top of the box to send Barca 3-0 up.
Iniesta turned provider for the 3rd time in the game as a nice give and go between him and Cesc helped Barca score their 4th via the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arsenal-c38429 skipper, and capped of a brilliant performance from Don Andres.
Victor Valdez later saved a penalty to save his clean sheet and was great throughout the match with his distribution and command.
The Catalan giants are now eleven points clear of main rivals, Real Madrid, and the capital side has a lot of ground to make in order to have a say on the trophy they think is rightly theirs.
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