Seven Goals and a Second-Half Surge: Levante Pull Away From Betis

For forty-five minutes this was a proper end-to-end contest, the kind of open, punch-for-punch football that scoreboards struggle to keep pace with. Adrian de la Fuente put Levante ahead on 24, Marc Bartra levelled for Real Betis on 34, and then the first half signed off in chaos: Enzo Bardeli restoring Levante's lead and Rodrigo Riquelme answering almost immediately, both goals landing around the 45th minute. Two apiece at the break, and no sense yet of who would blink.

The second half belonged to Roger Brugue. He struck on 56, set up by Bardeli, to nudge Levante back in front, and then again on 70 to give the hosts the cushion the first half had denied everyone. His brace was the hinge of the match — the moment an even, breathless contest became a Levante afternoon. From 2-2 and anyone's game, the margin stretched, and Betis, so competitive for an hour, suddenly found themselves chasing a deficit that only grew.

The underlying numbers explain how a game Betis shaped slipped away from them. The visitors had 60% of the ball and matched Levante for shots, twenty to nineteen, yet it was the hosts who carried the sharper edge — ten shots on target and 2.99 expected goals to Betis' 1.97. Possession and volume kept Betis in the contest; Levante's superior accuracy and conversion decided it. Jon Ander Olasagasti's late goal on 90 rounded off the rout and put a five on the board that the second-half performance thoroughly earned.

For Levante, this is the kind of statement home win that lifts a season — seven goals in it, five of them theirs, and a second half of real authority after a first that could have gone either way. For Real Betis, the frustration is that they were far from outclassed; they held the ball, created, and stayed level for an hour before their finishing and their defending both let them down at the decisive moments. In a seven-goal game the fine margins are everything, and every one of them fell Levante's way after the break.