Elche vs Barcelona Review
Barcelona extended their winning streak against Elche to 13 consecutive matches across all competitions with a 5-0 triumph at the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero. Elche started the game strongly, putting a heavily rotated Barcelona side under pressure. Barcelona unusually lost possession several times, but Raphinha regained control and calmly converted a penalty in the 14th minute to ease the tension. Despite falling behind, Elche remained resilient and continued to seek chances, with David Affengruber narrowly missing a diving header from a well-delivered corner.
Lamine started causing various problems down the hosts’ left side, while Karim Adeyemi was slightly off his usual pace on the opposite flank. Despite this, the visitors owed a debt to Eric García, whose last-ditch clearance prevented a certain equalizer as the first half progressed. Elche once again breached Barça’s defense as halftime approached, and although Ali Houary was unmarked near the penalty spot, he failed to connect properly with the open goal. That missed opportunity proved costly, as during first-half stoppage time, a misplaced ball reached Raphinha, who set up Karim Adeyemi. Adeyemi made no mistake, slotting a right-footed shot past Matías Dituro for his first goal with the club.
As expected, the visitors didn’t have to push too hard at the start of the second half, but this allowed Elche to press them several times before the hour mark. The closest the hosts came to scoring was when Tete Morente’s shot on the turn struck the outside of Joan García’s right post. The Barça goalkeeper then collected Morente’s cross, with Fer Niño ready to capitalize. As Lamine and Adeyemi began to tire, they were substituted for Dani Olmo and Anthony Gordon, who combined to set up Raphinha, allowing him to score his second goal with just over 20 minutes remaining.
Four minutes later, Gordon once again set up a goal by breaking away from the home defense and drawing the goalkeeper out, then passing to Fermín López, who scored into an empty net. Fermín’s skillful turn near the edge of the box created enough space for him to finish with a precise left-footed shot past Dituro, giving Barça their fifth goal with 12 minutes remaining.
This defeat marked Elche’s first home loss in eight matches (with 4 wins and 3 draws previously) and prevented Martín Anselmi from becoming one of the five club managers (out of 24) to win their debut game against Barcelona. Following this victory, Hansi Flick’s team has yet to draw in their last 36 LaLiga matches, holding a record of 30 wins and 6 losses.
