La Liga Daily Report - 2026-09-13

Barcelona maintained their perfect La Liga record with a 4-2 victory at Levante on Sunday, earning a fifth win from five matches and restoring their three-point lead over Real Madrid. Xavi Espart opened the scoring in the fifth minute with his first senior goal for the club, before Lamine Yamal struck in the 19th minute. Yamal converted a penalty shortly after half-time to make it 3-0, but Levante responded through Iván Romero and Roger Brugué in the closing stages. Substitute Karim Adeyemi settled the contest in stoppage time, leaving Barcelona on 15 points at the top of the table.

The result strengthened Barcelona’s early position but also exposed vulnerabilities that had been hidden by their fast start. Levante reduced a three-goal deficit to one and created a tense finish before Adeyemi’s late intervention. Manager Hansi Flick acknowledged that it was not Barcelona’s best performance and said the side had struggled in the second half, while stressing the need for improvement. Yamal’s second brace in the opening five league games further underlined his influence, but the defensive lapse will give Flick a clear focus before the next fixture.

Valencia dismissed head coach Carlos Corberan and football chief executive Ron Gourlay after a winless opening to the La Liga season. The club sat bottom of the table with one point from five matches following Friday’s 1-0 defeat by Sevilla, having opened the campaign with a draw against Celta Vigo and then suffered four consecutive losses. Corberan’s first-team coaching staff will also leave. Óscar Sánchez, coach of Valencia’s reserve side, will take interim charge while the club searches for a permanent successor. Valencia finished ninth last season, after Corberan had guided them to 12th in his first campaign following his December 2024 appointment.

The decision represented a broad reset of Valencia’s sporting structure rather than a change in the dugout alone. Gourlay’s departure removes the executive appointed at the same time as Corberan, while members of his football department are also leaving. A club statement said the changes were intended to begin “a new phase” for the running of football operations. Sánchez now faces the immediate task of stabilising a side that had scored once and conceded 10 goals in its opening five league games, with the club needing a rapid improvement to avoid an increasingly serious relegation fight.

Real Madrid returned to winning ways with a 4-1 victory over Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabéu on Saturday. Kylian Mbappé opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 14th minute and then supplied the assist for Álvaro Carreras three minutes later. Jude Bellingham made it 3-0 before half-time, with Vinícius Júnior involved in the build-up. Rayo pulled one back through Sergio Camello early in the second half, but Mbappé completed his brace in stoppage time after receiving an assist from substitute Arda Güler. The result moved Madrid to 12 points from five matches, three behind Barcelona.

The emphatic response came after Madrid’s defeat by Real Betis and kept José Mourinho’s side firmly in the early title picture. Madrid’s first-half intensity created a decisive advantage, although Rayo’s second-half goal showed that the contest was not entirely one-sided after the interval. Mbappé’s two goals and assist made him the defining figure of the victory, while Bellingham’s goal continued his productive start to the league campaign. Mourinho also pointed to the strength of his squad, with Güler making an immediate impact from the bench.

Atlético Madrid secured a 3-0 victory at Real Sociedad, moving joint-third in La Liga after a decisive burst of late goals. Alejandro Grimaldo, Jonathan David and Giuliano Simeone all scored in the closing stages, turning a competitive match at the Reale Arena into a comfortable away win. The result lifted Diego Simeone’s side to 10 points from five league matches, with three wins, one draw and one defeat. Real Sociedad had recovered from defeats by Real Betis and Real Madrid with a three-game unbeaten run before this setback, making Atlético’s margin of victory a significant result for both sides.

The win offered Atlético a much-needed response after a difficult sequence that had included defeats by Athletic Club and Liverpool. Their ability to find three goals late on showed greater attacking efficiency as the match opened up, although the timing also meant Sociedad remained in contention for long periods. Atlético’s rise to fourth place, as reported, kept them within the leading group after five rounds. For Simeone, the challenge will be to carry that attacking momentum into subsequent fixtures while maintaining the defensive solidity that allowed the visitors to finish the match without conceding.