Barca's fragility casts doubts on Champions League credentials

They may be one of Europe's most devastating teams at their best but another collapse in La Liga last weekend has shown Barcelona can be a soft touch.

Their 3-1 defeat by Levante on Saturday reopened old wounds from Anfield and Rome and suggests they have not learned from either of those collapses.

Levante scored three times in seven minutes after half-time exposing Barcelona's inability to regroup during a spell of intense pressure -- a familiar weakness since coach Ernesto Valverde came to the helm in 2017.

Most clubs in Europe would gladly take winning two league titles and a Copa del Rey in that time but Barcelona are a team concerned with details, the small margins that could define a good season or a great one.

Barca play Slavia Prague on Tuesday in the Champions League, when victory at Camp Nou against Group F's weakest team will ensure the frustration and failings from Levante swiftly fade.

But fragility persists that can be exposed by elite opponents when it matters most, as Roma and then Liverpool so emphatically proved in the last two Champions League campaigns, when three-goal first-leg leads were squandered by the Catalan giants.

Barcelona have shown they lack steel when they are uncomfortable, not least away from home, where their record under Valverde has been disappointing.

- 'We always respond' -
=======================
"We have lost a match and that's it, it's true that we must analyse it but we know when we lose that criticism is strong. We always respond and this time it will not be different."
Asked if the problem was due to their football or their attitude, he said: "It is a bit of everything. We must make sure it doesn't happen again."
"But at half-time we said we had to be more adventurous, more direct and we did it."