Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho on Sunday said his side were feeling down after their enthralling 5-4 defeat away to Levante UD brought an end to their record 43-match unbeaten run in La Liga.
Barca had clinched the title two weeks ago and last week survived playing 45 minutes with 10 men to draw 2-2 with Real Madrid, moving to within two games of becoming the first team since Real in 1932 to end a La Liga season undefeated.
Yet their hopes came crashing down in their penultimate game at the Ciutat de Valencia at the hands of unlikely suspects Levante, who are 15th in the standings and have spent most of the season fighting relegation.
Photo: Reuters
“We are not feeling good, we really wanted to end the season without losing, but we had a very difficult game against a highly motivated team and when you concede five goals you don’t deserve to win,” Coutinho told reporters. “Today is not a good day for us, we leave here with bad sensations.”
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde decided to give a rare rest to top-scorer Lionel Messi, and started without key defenders Samuel Umtiti and Gerard Pique.
However, his team were cut wide open by a rampant home side.
Levante scored three times after the break to take a 5-1 lead and become the first team since Malaga in 2003 to put five goals past Barca in a league game.
Coutinho scored his first hat-trick for Barcelona and Luis Suarez converted a penalty to set up a thrilling end to the game, but Levante held on and wildly celebrated being the first team in the league this season to put the Catalans to the sword.
“It was a very difficult game, it was very open, and we came back and almost pulled it off, but now it’s over. Forty-three games without losing is still historic, but now we have to look forward,” Coutinho said. “We feel bad. Of course, we wanted to win the league first of all and after we did that we wanted to end the season unbeaten. We had just two games left, so losing like this makes today a difficult day for us, but winning the league was the most important thing.”
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was