Barça thump Levante to advance in Copa del Rey

Barcelona, Jan 18 (IANS) Ousmane Dembele had a brace to lead FC Barcelona to a 3-0 victory over Levante in the second leg of their Copa del Rey knockout stage tie for a 4-2 triumph on aggregate.

The Copa holders are through to the quarter-finals, but that could change if the Spanish football federation concludes that Barça included an ineligible player in the roster for the first leg in Valencia, reports Efe.

Trailing 2-1 after the first leg, Barcelona were vastly the better side at the Camp Nou here on Thursday and would have won by a bigger margin if not for the heroics of Levante goalkeeper Aitor Fernandez.

It took a while, however, for the hosts to find their stride, as even Lionel Messi struggled to cope with the high press from Levante during the first 15 minutes.

Philippe Coutinho was the first to threaten, with a blast that was deflected away from the Levante goal, followed by Messi with a shot that forced a save from Fernandez.

As the game clock passed 30 minutes, Messi got the ball to Dembele in the area and the Frenchman scored. The duo repeated their act a minute later to put Barça ahead 2-0 for the night and 3-2 overall.

Coutinho had a goal called back for offside early in the second half before Messi scored in the 54th minute.

Fernandez went on to thwart strikes from Coutinho, Messi, Dembele - on two occasions - and Luis Suarez, who came on in the 60th minute.