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Determined Barca sore high

Football La Liga : Catalan side regain three-point lead; Atletico Madrid win
Last Updated 07 February 2016, 19:47 IST

 Barcelona equalled a club record of 28 games unbeaten to move three points clear at the top of La Liga with a hard-fought 2-0 win at Levante on Sunday.

The European champions were far from their best in coach Luis Enrique’s 100th game in charge, but David Navarro's first-half own goal and Luis Suarez's strike in stoppage time was enough to secure a 10th consecutive win in all competitions.

Barca now lead Atletico Madrid by three points and have a game in hand on Diego Simeone's men. Third-placed Real Madrid are now seven points adrift of Barca.

Barca's 28-game unbeaten run matches the same feat of Pep Guardiola’s side in 2010/11 with Enrique's men well on course to repeat their treble of Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey.

Fresh from hitting Valencia for seven in the Copa del Rey semifinals in midweek, Barca started with purpose and should have been ahead inside two minutes when Lionel Messi was wrongly flagged offside as he slotted home from Andres Iniesta's pass.

However, Barca needed a slice of luck to open the scoring on 21 minutes as Jordi Alba burst down the left and his ball into the box was deflected into his own net by Navarro. Barca’s star front three of Suarez, Messi and Neymar were kept for long periods, but they nearly combined for a brilliant second moments later when Messi picked out Neymar and his driven cross was turned just wide by Suarez.

Levante remain rooted to the foot of the table, but had won their previous two home games and deserved to be at least level at the break as they outplayed the Catalans in the latter stages of the first-half.  Verza fired a free-kick inches over before Jefferson Lerma had a great chance to level when he skewed horribly wide with just Claudio Bravo to beat.

Barca had barely threatened themselves after half-time, but did seal the points with the last move of the match as Messi picked out an unmarked Suarez to fire home his 36th goal of the season.

Ton-up Torres

On Saturday, Fernando Torres scored his 100th Atletico Madrid goal as Los Rojiblancos came from behind to move level on points with Barcelona at the top of La Liga thanks to a 3-1 win over Eibar.

Central defensive pairing Jose Maria Gimenez and Saul Niguez headed home corners after Keko had fired Eibar into a shock lead just after half-time before Torres ended a five-month goal drought in stoppage time.

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(Published 07 February 2016, 19:47 IST)

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