Winning habit strikes as the leaders march on

Levante UD stand firm 

The Granotas were more than a match for FC Barcelona in a first half in which the visitors only managed to outperform the hosts in the possession stakes. The Azulgranas had plenty of the ball, but some fine pressing and good rearguard work from Levante saw Luis Enrique's charges fail to fashion as many openings as they had in recent matches.

Barcelona open the scoring through a Navarro own goal

The visitors took the lead on 21 minutes after Andres Iniesta and Jordi Alba combined down the left flank. Alba's cross deflected off the unfortunate David Navarro and into his own goal. After having got themselves infront, the league leaders then took their foot off the gas and failed to go on and put the game to bed.

[STATS] All the stats from Barça's 2-0 win away at Levante #LevanteFCB #FCBlive https://t.co/r9RVeeMpcK pic.twitter.com/kqsJcZNEGL

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 7, 2016

Rakitic deputises for Busquets

With Sergio Busquets starting on the bench, Ivan Rakitic was given the nod in the middle of the park. Enrique went with the Croatian as his holding midfielder, alongside Iniesta and Sergi Roberto. On 68 minutes came the obvious change as Busquets replaced Rakitic to start pulling the strings in the centre of the field.

Plenty going forward for Levante  

Rubi's side capitalised on Barcelona's under-par showing to pour forward, threatening Claudio Bravo's goal on no less than five occasions during the course of the game. The clearest goalscoring chances fell to Giuseppe Rossi and Jose Luis Morales. The latter had a golden opportunity to have restored parity right at the start of the second half, but his effort cannoned back off the upright.

Suárez fires home

Just as it looked as if Barcelona would run out one-goal winners, Luis Suarez's goalscoring instincts came to the fore to round off a 2-0 victory as Barcelona left the Ciutat de Valencia stadium with all three points.