Roger Brugué scores twice as Levante outgun Real Betis 5-2 for their first win

Levante had lost their first two games and not scored. At home to Real Betis they scored five.

It was 2-2 at the break. Adrián de la Fuente headed Levante in front on 24, Marc Bartra levelled on 34, Enzo Bardeli restored the lead in first-half stoppage time, and Rodrigo Riquelme headed Betis level again moments later.

Brugué decides it after half-time

Roger Brugué settled it. He headed Levante 3-2 up on 56 and made it 4-2 on 70. Jon Ander Olasagasti headed a fifth deep into stoppage time. Betis, unbeaten and on six points coming in, had no answer in the second half.

Match facts

• 24' — Adrián de la Fuente (Levante)
• 34' — Marc Bartra (Real Betis)
• 45+1' — Enzo Bardeli (Levante)
• 45+4' — Rodrigo Riquelme (Real Betis)
• 56' — Roger Brugué (Levante)
• 70' — Roger Brugué (Levante)
• 90+5' — Jon Ander Olasagasti (Levante)

What's next

Levante went into matchday 3 second-from-bottom on one point; a first win of the season lifts them clear of the drop zone. Real Betis started the round fifth on six points, inside the European places, and this is their first defeat. Both return for matchday 4 after the international break.

Betis's only defeat of the season

This 5-2 has stood alone. Real Betis have not lost since. They beat Real Madrid 1-0 at home in matchday 4 — Troy Parrott converting a rebound in the 81st minute, Álvaro Valles saving a stoppage-time Kylian Mbappé penalty — then opened their Champions League campaign with a 3-2 win away to Lille. A 2-1 comeback win at Villarreal and a 1-0 grind past ten-man Getafe followed in matchdays 5 and 6, and a stoppage-time Deportivo equaliser at Riazor on matchday 7 was the closest anyone has come to beating them since Levante did. Four wins and a draw in five matches, against a single defeat all season — and that defeat came in this game.

Levante's win stayed isolated

For Levante, the follow-up went the other way. A goalless draw away to Málaga in matchday 4 kept them unbeaten for a second straight match, but Barcelona then visited the Ciutat de València in matchday 5 and led 3-0 through Xavi Espart and a Lamine Yamal brace; Levante pulled two back in the last ten minutes before Karim Adeyemi settled it at 4-2 in stoppage time. Their matchday-6 fixture against Athletic Club was postponed and still has to be played, leaving them a game behind the rest of the division, and a Comunitat derby defeat at Villarreal in matchday 7 — Alberto Moleiro involved in three of the four goals — made it back-to-back losses either side of that gap. The 5-2 against Real Betis remains Levante's only win of the season.

Where this leaves both clubs

Seven matchdays on for Betis, six for Levante with the postponed Athletic Club fixture still outstanding, the table shows how differently the two sides have gone since this game. Real Betis are third on 16 points from seven matches — five wins, one draw and the single defeat suffered here — with a +2 goal difference, comfortably inside the Champions League places and five points off leaders Barcelona. Levante are 17th on 5 points from six games, level on points with 18th-placed Elche and kept out of the bottom three only by a better goal difference, -4 against Elche's -5. A result that read like a breakthrough for Levante in August has aged into an outlier in an otherwise winless campaign; for Betis, it remains the one blemish on an unbeaten run that has carried them into the European places.