Levante snatches wild 3-3 draw against Sevilla with goals in the 91st and 99th minutes

Isaac Romero comes on in the 67th minute, scores the 3-2 in the 94th, and before he's even finished celebrating he's already seeing a second yellow card for getting too carried away. That minute sums up what the match at the Ciutat de Valencia was: Sevilla thought they had it won, and Levante equalized in the 99th minute, with nobody's nerves left intact by the end. It finished 3-3, with seven goals spread between the 12th and 99th minutes, and with a Levante side that came from behind twice in the closing stretch.

The match, part of LaLiga, started with Sevilla going ahead early: Robbie Ure finished with his right foot from the center of the box in the 12th minute to make it 0-1. The score didn't change for the rest of the first half despite chances on both sides, and Levante went into the break trailing even though they had created more opportunities.

Second-half madness

At the start of the second half, Sevilla appeared to put the game away: Felix Correia, assisted with a header by Ure, extended the lead in the 53rd minute with a low shot that beat the keeper near the post, in a goal that went to VAR before being confirmed. But Levante responded almost immediately. Just three minutes later, Ivan Romero, after a through ball from Roger Brugue, made it 1-2 with a shot curled into the top corner.

The score held until the final stretch, when everything came apart. In the 91st minute, Adrian de la Fuente leveled the match with a left-footed strike from outside the box that flew into the top corner: 2-2. The equalizer didn't last long: in the 94th minute, Isaac Romero, who had just come on, finished with his left foot from outside the box off an assist from Youssouf Fofana to make it 2-3, and a minute later he picked up a second yellow for over-celebrating, leaving Sevilla down to ten men. The punishment arrived in the 99th minute: Ifeanyi Ndukwe, with a low shot near the left post that was also confirmed by VAR, made it a final 3-3.

What the numbers say

Levante controlled possession and generated more volume of play, but Sevilla was more efficient at key moments despite finishing with a man down.

According to our post-match xG estimate based on the shots taken in the match, Sevilla generated 3.073 expected goals to Levante's 2.534, a figure that backs up the idea that the visitors had the clearer chances (four big chances compared to one for the home side) even though they ended up unable to hold onto the lead.

Beforehand we had projected a tight match, with Levante at 39%, a draw at 29%, and Sevilla at 32%, with a combined total of 2.73 expected goals. Reality blew past that forecast: six goals were scored before stoppage time and one more within it, and the result ended up being the outcome that looked least likely on paper, a draw, even if the road to get there, two Levante comebacks in the final minutes, was far more dramatic than any percentage could have predicted.

What the match leaves behind

Sevilla is left with the feeling of having let two points slip away that they had already put away, even playing the final minutes with a man down after Isaac Romero's red card. Levante, for its part, picks up a point that feels underwhelming given how the match unfolded, but one that came thanks to the persistence of a team that never stopped pushing, with shots in the 91st and 99th minutes that ended up finding the back of the net. In the standings, both sit far from the top positions, with an eight-point gap between them before this draw, a result that doesn't change much of the picture for either club as LaLiga continues on.