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Luuk de Jong rescues Barcelona in extra time

Valencia, Spain, Apr 10 (EFE).- Luuk de Jong, with a header in extra time, rescued Barcelona from a road draw and enabled the team to eke out a win over a Levante that was superior in the first half and whom it only managed to finish off just before the final whistle to continue with its upward drive on the La Liga table.

The exciting match was played at Ciutat de Valencia stadium before some 20,000 spectators.

During the first half, a strong Valencia squad mounted great counterattacks and held Barcelona at bay, but the reverse was also true, and the intermission came with neither team on the board yet.

Three minutes after the 51st-minute penalty kick by Morales that put the hosts on the board, Marc-Andre ter Stegen neutralized another penalty kick, but just minutes later Aubameyang managed to find the twine to even things up.

Another few minutes went by before Pedri could send Barca ahead with the 2-1, and at that point the Catalan squad was in the driver’s seat, but a new penalty set up the tying penalty kick tally from Melero in the 82nd minute and it looked like a draw was on the cards.

However, a minute or so into stoppage time, Luuk de Jong got to the net and sank the gamewinner grabbing the three ranking points for Barca.

Lineups:

Levante: Cardenas, Miramon, Rober Pier, Vezo (Cantero, m.76), Postigo, Son, Radoja (Bardhi, m.76), Pepelu, Campaña (Melero, m.65), Morales (Pubill, m.88) and Roger (Dani Gomez, m.65)

Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Dani Alves (Lenglet, m.80), Araujo, Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba, De Jong (Gavi, m.55), Busquets, Nico (Pedri, m.55), Demele (Adama, m.84) Aubameyang (Luuk de Jong, m.84) and Ferran Torres.

EFE ag/jl/bp

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