Barcelona continued their pursuit of La Liga leaders Real Madrid with a 3-1 victory over Elche on Sunday, despite ongoing defensive struggles. The venue of that final was the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. The Catalan side showed incredible spirit and fight against adversity even as they battled through adversity like the injury of Javier Aguirre.
The visitors were caught cold as the home side moved into a commanding lead inside the first quarter of an hour. Arguably the best was Alejandro Balde’s electric counterattack that culminated with an intense finishing effort from the relentless Lamine Yamal. The goal set the tone for an aggressive start from Barcelona, who were without key players such as Pedri, Gavi, and Joan Garcia. Despite that, they were able to bring back Robert Lewandowski and Dani Olmo after long layoffs, providing significant boosts to their squad depth.
Ferran Torres, the surprise offensive MVP for Barcelona, put it best when he said how crucial their early tide was.
“It was very important to start strong and intense. From there, we could take the game where we wanted it to go.” – Ferran Torres
Even after a beautiful start for Barcelona, their defensive issues were a real problem all night long. Elche took advantage of this as they created a handful of quality goalscoring chances. Rafa Mir cut to his left and fired a bullet of a shot that got past Ronald Araujo and Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. This equalizer in the first half exposed the hosts’ back line frailties. Szczesny had already made a very important save, parrying a Mir attempt onto the post to keep Barcelona ahead.
Three minutes after Mir’s equalizer, Torres doubled Barcelona’s advantage by tapping in a precise cross from Fermin Lopez, who had broken into space down the left flank. Marcus Rashford soon confirmed the win with a wonderful finish, his second league goal of the campaign. Lopez’s contributions to this goal were undeniable, as he answered the call once again by hitting another perfectly timed cross.
Despite the victory, Barcelona’s defense remained shaky, with Elche creating more chances that could have turned the match in their favor. Torres gave credit to their play on both ends of the field after that first goal avalanche.
“We knew the type of game they were going to play, and we started very strong. We were a bit off afterwards, but we found our spirit and our intensity again in the second half.” – Ferran Torres
The game highlighted Barcelona’s continued struggles at the back, the match being their sixth straight league match without a clean sheet. The Blues battled hard to grind out all three points against a spirited Elche team. Elche coach Eder Sarabia, once set to join Quique Setien’s staff at Barcelona, was in charge of fraudsters.
La Liga giants Barcelona are dealing with injuries and a disjointed defense. If they want to catch Real Madrid at the top of La Liga, they need to address their lack of finishing touch.
