Barcelona face a trip to Levante on Sunday night as they look to move ahead of their rivals at the top of the La Liga table once again.
Atletico Madrid’s win on Saturday moved them level with the Catalan giants at the top of the table for the time being, while Real Madrid now sit just two points behind Ernesto Valverde’s men too.
SEE MORE: Good news for Barcelona: Crucial injury boost, but threat of season-ending surgery still looms
With that in mind, the pressure is back on Barca to respond to open that gap up again, and they’ll hope to do so with a convincing display at Levante.
Prior to their slip-up in the Champions League in midweek at home to Tottenham, the reigning Spanish champions were in sensational form in their 4-0 win over rivals Espanyol last weekend.
They’ll hope to produce a similar performance, and as seen in the tweets below, many of their fans want to see Ousmane Dembele start.
The 21-year-old has bagged nine goals and five assists in 20 appearances so far this season, with two in his last two outings, and so it’s no surprise to see his popularity among supporters given his decisive impact on the pitch.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t all praise and positivity for Valverde, as his decision to leave starlet Riqui Puig out of his squad hasn’t gone down particularly well.
His snub was heavily criticised, as seen below, with many seemingly believing that the clash with Levante would have been an ideal opportunity to continue to integrate him into the senior squad.
However, Barcelona fans will have to wait a little longer before that happens it seems while also hoping that they can pick up another win this weekend…
[? SQUAD LIST]
? #LevanteBarça
?? #ForçaBarça pic.twitter.com/OLm12jj0aq— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 15, 2018
Wish Puig was given more of a chance in the first team ??
— ? ??????? ? (@TheGoatMessi10) December 15, 2018
We prefer dembele starting
— Element Enthalpy (@ElementEnthalpy) December 15, 2018
Puig en ves de Rakitic, ????,
— luistualiza (@LuistcYah) December 15, 2018
I hope Dembele gets a start.
— Anurag Sharma (@anurag_029) December 15, 2018
start dembele and coutinho
— ed (@spededuardo) December 15, 2018
— Niko (@iniesta_el8) December 15, 2018
— ElFino (@JacobTuf) December 15, 2018
P U I G
— Sebastián. (@Favestian) December 15, 2018
Mi 11: Stegen; Semedo Piqué Lenglet Alba; Busi Vidal Arthur; Dembelé Suárez Leo.
— Jesus Orange Santana (@chanitons) December 15, 2018
Puig ????
— jose (@jose62477744) December 15, 2018
OSAMEEEE DEMBELÈEEE
— Niko (@iniesta_el8) December 15, 2018
No Puig against Levante??
Valverde have 0 balls.— 14 Forever (@04Elahi) December 15, 2018
