Valencia: Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid each passed up the chance to go top of La Liga on Saturday after Barcelona conceded three goals in seven minutes during a surprise 3-1 defeat by Levante.
Lionel Messi converted a first-half penalty at the City of Valencia Stadium for his sixth goal in five games only for Levante to stun the defending champions with an incredible treble shortly after the hour.
Yet Atletico and Sevilla played out a 1-1 draw at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, where Diego Costa missed a penalty, before Real squandered a string of opportunities at the Santiago Bernabeu in a goalless draw against Real Betis.
It means Barca will be relieved to stay at the summit - ahead of Atletico by a point with a game in hand and in front of Real on goal difference - even if their collapse against Levante should offer encouragement to their title rivals.
Meanwhile, Granada will overtake them all if they beat Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Barca's loss left Real Madrid, Atletico and Sevilla all with the chance to claim top spot but none seized the initiative.
Real are yet to establish a consistent run of results, even if they created more than enough chances to beat Betis and on another day might have scored five.
Eden Hazard saw a much-needed goal ruled out and Sergio Ramos went close too before Karim Benzema skewed wide at the back post from four yards.
The best opportunity fell to Ferland Mendy but, with only Joel Robles to beat, he lifted his finish up, over and wide. Hazard had waved Mendy through and might have wondered why he did not take the ball himself.
Betis rode their luck, particularly when Zouhair Feddal handled in the box, while Vinicius Junior and Ramos hit the goalkeeper amid mad scrambles in injury-time.
Atletico will also rue chances missed, with Costa most guilty, his 72nd-minute penalty saved by Tomas Vaclik after Alvaro Morata cancelled out Franco Vazquez's opener.
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