Next Sunday, 15th of February 2015, a super moralized Barcelona will measure forces with a Levante side in need of points at the emblematic Camp Nou for round 23 of the Spanish Liga BBVA. The Catalan team are going through an excellent moment and need to continue to win in order to apply some pressure to the league leaders, Real Madrid, who seem to be losing some of their stamina recently.

After a narrow and very complicated home win against the surprising Villarreal, Barcelona travelled to the Basque Country to go head-to-head with Athletic Bilbao and managed once again to snatch the three points. Barça were by far the best team for large periods of the match, especially during the first-half, and didn’t come as a surprise when they went to the break leading by 2-0. The usual suspects, Lionel Messi and Neymar, were particularly inspired once again and signed one goal each. The Brazilian wonder boy in fact sentenced the match when he scored Barça’s fourth goal on the 64th minute, almost reducing to dust Athletic’s already faint hopes of getting back in the game.

Barcelona once again enjoyed from an overwhelming percentage of ball possession (73%) and, at the same time, they have created plenty of goal chances.

Although the media tend to criticize his work almost on a daily basis, the truth is that Luis Enrique is doing a quality job with Barcelona, since he is, on one way or another, managing to deal with the super egos that populate almost all the players of his team.

For the upcoming clash against the frail Levante, the Asturian manager will still not be able to rely on Douglas and Vermaelen, both sidelined due to injury.

As for Levante, the Comunidad Valenciana team must be particularly moralized after their last weekend’s solid win over Málaga. Les Granotes won the match by 4-1, with an hat-trick from their erratic experienced forward David Barral, who has been decisive for his team on several matches this season.

Despite their good win against Málaga, Levante are currently third from bottom and are below the relegation line, something that might force Lucas Alcaraz’s boys to try to make something positive out of their next weekend’s visit to Camp Nou.

Barcelona are firm favourites for the upcoming fixture and not even the moral boost Levante have received from their last weekend’s win should be enough for them to be able to upset the home side.

Barcelona

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

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Levante

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLLLW

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Alves - Mascherano - Piqué - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Xavi - Rakitic - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Levante (4-4-2) - Marino - Navarro - Lopez - Ramis - Tono - Morales - Simao - Camarasa - Xumetra - Barral - Uche

Prediction

Barcelona 3 Levante 0