Barcelona's unbeaten season snapped by red-hot Levante in 9-goal thriller

Barcelona's hopes for an unbeaten season have been dashed by Spain's in-form side.

Levante won its fifth league match in a row Sunday, topping Barcelona 5-4 courtesy of an Emmanuel Boateng treble and an Enis Bardhi brace.

Boateng became the first player to record a La Liga hat-trick against Barcelona since Diego Forlan did so in 2005, while Philippe Coutinho produced his first trio of goals in a Blaugrana strip during a frenetic nine-goal affair.

The host took the lead inside of 10 minutes when Boateng benefitted from Marc-Andre ter Stegen's gaffe from close range. The Valencia outfit should have made it 2-0 moments later, but winger Bardhi rang the bar with a one-touch effort that the German shot-stopper knew little about.

Boateng would get Levante's second on the half-hour mark, hugging the offside line before running onto Sasa Lukic's incisive through ball. The 21-year-old then rounded Ter Stegen before hip-checking Nelson Semedo out of harm's way and firing a rocket into the back of the vacant net.

Coutinho's deflected strike from just outside the area cut that lead in half seven minutes before the interval.

But Bardhi got another seconds after the break, and Boateng completed his treble in the 49th minute on the counter-attack.

Up 5-1 with a third of the match to play, Levante must have thought matters were sorted before Coutinho scored twice in a five-minute window and Luis Suarez added another from the spot to draw the visitor within one.

In the end, Levante held on for the narrow victory as Barcelona conceded five goals in a league match for the first time since 2003, snapping a Spanish-record 43-game unbeaten run in the process.