Barcelona’s Ansu Fati youngest to hit a La Liga brace

Madrid: Ansu Fati became the youngest player ever to score a brace in La Liga on Sunday by capitalising on two brilliant Lionel Messi assists to give Barcelona a 2-1 victory over Levante.

Fati, at 17 years and 94 days old, broke the previous record held by Juanmi Jimenez, who scored twice for Malaga against Real Zaragoza at 17 years and 115 days old in 2010.

Messi teed up Fati’s quickfire double with a defence-splitting pass and then a trademark weaving run before Ruben Rochina scored Levante’s goal in the 92nd minute, which really should have come sooner.

Barca reduce the gap at the top to three points behind Real Madrid and begin to regain some rhythm under new coach Quique Setien after Thursday’s 5-0 thumping of Leganes in the Copa del Rey.

Yet Levante should have converted more of a handful of excellent chances in the second half, that suggested Barcelona’s defensive problems and fragility when in the lead are far from solved.

Leganes and Levante, who sit 18th and 13th respectively, offered a relatively straight-forward route back to winning ways too for Barcelona, who were wobbling last weekend when they followed a last-gasp win over Segunda side Ibiza with a convincing defeat by Valencia.

Setien, who replaced Ernesto Valverde as coach last month, found his methods questioned and there was evidence against Levante to suggest he may have decided to introduce his style of play more gradually.

Real Sociedad lost 2-1 away at struggling Leganes while Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Alaves.

In between, Getafe had carved out a 2-0 victory away at Bilbao to put them in pole position behind Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Jose Bordalas’ team are now ahead of Sevilla on goal difference, while Real Sociedad are five points further back.

Getafe missed out on fourth on the final day of last season but they continue to prove their challenge was far from a one-off.

Results

La Liga

Leganes 2 Real Sociedad 1

Eibar 1 Real Betis 1

Athletic Club 0 Getafe 2

Sevilla 1 Deportivo Alaves 1

Villarreal 3 Osasuna 1

Barcelona 2 Levante 1

Serie A

Juventus 3 Fiorentina 0

Atalanta 2 Genoa 2

Milan 1 Hellas Verona 1

Lazio 5 SPAL 1

Lecce 4 Torino 0

Udinese 0 Internazionale 2

Ligue 1

Nice 2 Olympique Lyonnais 1

Metz 3 Saint-Etienne 1

Bordeaux 0 Olympique Marseille 0