MADRID: Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman stared in disbelief from the bench.

Lionel Messi walked with his head down near midfield.

Defender Clement Lenglet batted the ball away with his hands in frustration after being called for a foul.

It was another frustrating night for Barca in La Liga.

Barcelona missed yet another chance to reach the top after blowing a two-goal lead in a 3-3 draw at Levante on Tuesday.

Barcelona were up 2-0 and 3-2 but couldn’t hold on, despite knowing that a win would have put them provisionally ahead of Atletico Madrid.

The draw took Barca into second place in the standings on 76 points, one behind leaders Atletico Madrid and one ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, who both have a game in hand. There will be two rounds remaining after the midweek matches.

Lionel Messi put a dominant Barca in front with acrobatic strike after 26 minutes and then played a part in Pedri tapping in their second goal in the 34th after a sweeping team move.

Levante got a foothold in the game with a header from Gonzalo Melero in the 57th and talismanic forward Jose Luis Morales equalised three minutes later.

Ousmane Dembele restored Barca’s lead in the 64th and looked to have sent Ronald Koeman’s side provisionally top of the standings but Levante came back at them and equalised again when striker Sergio Leon diverted in at the near post in the 83rd.

This feels terrible, it’s very difficult [to win the title] now,” said Barca midfielder Sergio Busquets. We wanted to win and put pressure on the other teams but weren’t able to and errors cost us dear, as has happened too many times this season. Teams keep scoring too easily against us.”

Barca had clawed their way back into the title race with a sensational run of results since January but their resurgent challenge has unravelled in their last four games, in which they have taken five points.

Koeman’s side gave away the lead in a shock 2-1 loss to visiting Granada on April 29 and after beating Valencia 3-2 in their next game were held 0-0 at home by Atletico on Saturday, missing a chance to go above Diego Simeone’s side in the table.

“We have to wait and see what happens in the other games, but this was a huge step backward for us,” Koeman said. “I don’t know how to explain what happened. We played without intensity in the second half. To concede three goals in 45 minutes, its just too much for this team.”

Messi, in what could be his last season with Barca, opened the scoring in the with his league-leading 29th goal. Jordi Alba’s cross grazed the head of a defender on its way to Messi, who adjusted his body and threw his left foot over the ball, volleying it into the bottom corner.

Messi instigated the second too, freeing the sprinting Dembele down the right, who powered past Oscar Duarte and prodded back just in time for Pedri to finish.

Levante, sitting in 13th place, always looked a threat on the break and made it pay with two goals in two minutes before the hour.

First, Melero nipped in front of Sergi Roberto to head in and then a sloppy Messi touch allowed Morales to bounce the ball off Roger Marti, before volleying brilliantly into the far corner.

Barca thought they were in control again when Dembele put the team ahead again with a shot into the top of the net, but Sergio Leon equalised again, completing a low cross inside the area after American defender Sergio Dest slipped while trying to fend off his opponent.

Elsewhere, second-to-last-place Elche lost 2-0 at home against Alaves, while Osasuna defeated visiting Cadiz 3-2 in a match between mid-table teams.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2021