The Blaugrana put collectively some beautiful strikes within the win at dwelling…
Barcelona prolonged their unbeaten run towards Elche to 22 matches with a 3-1 win on the Olympic Stadium.
The outcome additionally marked their ninth consecutive victory over the guests, sustaining their longest unbeaten report towards a La Liga facet.
Elche began the match brightly, protecting possession properly and urgent excessive within the opening minutes, however their early confidence was undone by a couple of essential defensive errors.
After simply 9 minutes, a misplaced go allowed Alejandro Balde to surge down the left and discover Lamine Yamal inside the realm. {The teenager} lower inside onto his left foot and located the far nook to make it 1-0.
Solely two minutes later, Barcelona doubled their lead. Fermin Lopez capitalised on a slip from Adria Pedrosa, broke into the field, and squared the ball for Ferran Torres to faucet in from shut vary.
The 2 fast objectives appeared to place the hosts in full management, although their rhythm dipped because the half went on.
Elche, to their credit score, refused to fold. Rafa Mir remained a continuing risk and bought his reward three minutes earlier than the break when he was performed by means of by Alvaro Nunez.
The striker turned inside Ronald Araujo earlier than slotting previous Wojciech Szczesny to convey the guests again into the sport.
Barcelona nonetheless went into the interval forward, however there was work to do after a half wherein they conceded 10 first-half objectives of their final 11 league matches.
Rashford restores management
The second half started with extra vitality from Elche, who got here near equalising when Mir struck the put up after a quick counter-attack.
Nevertheless, Barcelona quickly regained their composure. Rashford, who had been full of life all through, sealed the win within the 61st minute.
Lopez floated a intelligent go to the England worldwide, who skipped previous Pedrosa and lashed a robust shot in off the crossbar for 3-1.
From there, Hansi Flick’s facet managed the sport professionally. Dani Olmo made his return from damage, and Robert Lewandowski got here off the bench to a heat reception as Barcelona regarded to shut out the win.
Elche loved temporary spells of possession however lacked the leading edge to check Szczesny once more.
