Zinedine Zidane's side were looking to bounce back from a disappointing home draw with Valencia before the international break. Ramos returned from suspension to start for Madrid but Isco and Bale started on the bench for the hosts. Levante, with a goalkeeper in inspired form, were able to hold the current European champions to a 1-1 draw, as Madrid went down to 10 men in the final minutes.
After a relatively quiet opening period, Levante took a shock twelfth minute lead at the Bernabeu when Real Madrid failed to deal with a long throw. The ball bounced in the box and Ivi reacted quicker than Carvajal after slicing his first effort and he stabbed past the hesitant Casilla to open the scoring.
Asensio almost brought the hosts level straight away with their first shot on target, but his effort was blocked before it could reach the goal.
Most of Madrid's threat was coming down the left, but some positive link-up play between Marcelo and Theo Hernandez came to nothing as Fernandez reacted well to two of Theo’s dangerous crosses.
After 26 minutes Benzema was withdrawn through injury and replaced by Gareth Bale, who had been the subject of boos from the home fans on his last outing at the Bernabeu.
Madrid then eventually drew level after a period of sustained pressure. On the 36 minute mark, an in-swinging Kroos corner from the left was headed goalwards by Ramos and saved by the keeper but the rebound fell straight to Lucas Vazquez who tapped home from three yards out.
Just before the referee called an end to the first half, Ramos played a ball over the top to release Bale and the Welshman advanced goalwards but couldn’t beat Fernandez, who came out and reacted well to his shot.
The second half then started with the hosts unsurprisingly on top, but Levante defended well and stopped Madrid from creating any clear-cut chances.
Isco, hoping to repeat his Spain heroics from during the international break, replaced Marcos Llorente with half an hour remaining and he was his usual creative self. Both Isco and Vazquez crossed towards Gareth Bale, but the Welshman twice headed just wide as he rose well to meet the ball.
Asensio looked to continue his impressive start to the season and was busy throughout the game, but he saw two decent efforts saved well by the excellent Fernandez in the Levante goal.
Fernandez then made the best save of the game as he got down quickly to his left to palm an effort from Marcelo wide of the goal. The frustration at this missed opportunity got the better of the Brazilian defender, as he was shown a straight red card directly after his miss for a kick out at Levante midfielder Lerma.
Despite being a man down, Madrid continued to push Levante, and Toni Kroos looked to have won the game in the final minutes as his curling effort was out of the reach of the Levante keeper but the ball agonisingly struck the post before rolling behind.
Levante managed to hold on and the final whistle was greeted by a chorus of boos from the Bernabeu faithful. Los Blancos and Levante are both still unbeaten at the beginning of this La Liga campaign, but the away side will undoubtedly be the happier after managing a point at last year's La Liga champions.
In the successive home draws, Madrid have undoubtedly missed their main man Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been unavailable through suspension, but will hope to improve if they want to retain the league title, having already dropped four points in games where they should be getting maximum points.