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Levante completed a comeback victory over Barcelona in the La Liga, showing great resilience after they had gone behind to a 37th-minute penalty by Lionel Messi.
Second-half goals by Jose Campana, Borja Mayoral, and Nemanja Radoja in the space of eight minutes completed the famous win to send the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia onto cloud nine.
With the defeat, Barcelona saw their seven-match winning run come to an end and Real Madrid can usurp their spot at the summit of the league table if they pick up all three points in their late kickoff.
Given the rich vein of form the Blaugrana came into the fixture with as well as the difference in quality between the two sides, this was a match that they were expected to win and here, we shall be highlighting three reasons why the Catalans fell to the shock defeat to Levante.
#3 Defensive lapses
Barcelona's defense is not exactly famed for being the most solid, but the effectiveness of their midfield and attack means that they rarely get troubled.
However, on occasion, opposition teams have managed to put the Barcelona defense under pressure and over time, they have proved to be incapable of dealing with sustained pressure and that happened to be the case against Levante.
From a position of seeming comfort, Barcelona managed to throw their lead away, with their defense contriving to deny them of all three points.
Despite not having not made any major inroad for most of the match, the home side were given a chance from nothing when Gerard Pique made a hash of his clearance on the hour mark, leading to Mayoral and Morales combining excellently to tee up Jose Campana who made no mistake.
Less than two minutes later, Campana returned the favor, finding Mayoral with a pass for the former Real Madrid man to curl from 20 yards although Pique and Co. would wonder how he had got such space.
Levante got their third on the day when Clement Lenglet could only head a clearance into the path of Radoja who promptly guided the ball past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen with an exquisite volley.
Barcelona's defense has looked shaky on occasion particularly away from home and once again, they were architects of their destruction in the defeat to Levante.
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#2 They did not show enough impetus in attack
While Barcelona's defense might not exactly be the most awe-inspiring in the world, their attack is a different matter and there are only a handful of clubs who can boast of the quality within the Blaugrana frontline.
Messi has been the driving force behind Barcelona's upturn in fortune, but despite his superhuman abilities, the Argentine international can only do so much and needs the input of his teammates on occasion.
Luis Suarez pulled up with what was a calf injury in the 41st minute and was promptly replaced by Carlez Perez, but neither the La Masia graduate nor strike partner Antoine Griezmann did enough to inspire Barcelona to victory.
The latter's display was particularly most disappointing, given his status as a world-class player and the huge amount Barcelona spent to get him.
Griezmann's stats against Levante make for pretty grim reading. He mustered just one shot across the 90 minutes, failed to complete a dribble and did not make a key pass and while his rather disappointing pass accuracy of 68.7% was the worst of any Barcelona player in the match.
Goals win games and with Messi not exactly at his imperious best, Barcelona needed their other attackers to step up to the plate, but that failed to happen and it played a role in their defeat.
#1 Jose Campana was in inspired form
Heading into the 60th minute, Levante had failed to hit a shot on target, but over the next 30 minutes, they had posted three and rather impressively scored with all three of their shots on target.
A major reason for their late surge in the game was the form of midfielder Jose Campana who, for about 15 minutes of the second-half, showed Messiesque ability to help his side to victory.
The 26-year-old had opened the scoring for Levante on the 60th-minute mark after Pique's poor clearance allowed his teammates to play him in for the equalizer.
Two minutes later, he turned provider as he set up teammate Borja Mayoral with a pristine pass to curl in from 20 yards.
This means that Campana has now posted returns of two goals and two assists this season and if Levante are to maintain their quest for European qualification, he would have a crucial role to play.
