The Barcelona coach, Ernesto Valverde, says his side should still be in the Copa del Rey quarter-final draw despite accusations from Levante that they fielded an ineligible player in the first leg.
Barça overturned a 2-1 deficit from last week as two goals from Ousmane Dembélé and one from Lionel Messi gave them a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou on Thursday, giving them a 4-2 victory on aggregate.
But the Levante president, Quico Catalán, has said they have complained to the Spanish Football Federation over Barcelona’s selection of Chumi in the first match and hope to have them thrown out of the competition.
Levante say Chumi was suspended after picking up five yellow cards for Barcelona B. However, Valverde insists that the 19-year-old was eligible for a cup game and was instead banned for the La Liga game against Eibar.
Valverde reportedly said after Thursday’s second-leg win: “We have no doubt about Chumi, neither before, nor after, nor during, we think that we should be in the draw tomorrow.
“We are sure that we did it well, we knew perfectly well that Chumi was sanctioned and that he could not use the match against Eibar, but in the cup. We could not use [Rafa] Mújica either.
“We are convinced of what we have done, we have acted in an absolutely correct way, we have won where we had to win, it is very clear.”
Catalán had said before the game: “It’s not an easy situation, as sports people like us, we prefer to win situations like this on the pitch. Whatever happens on the pitch, Levante are going to pass the situation on to the Federation.”