Barcelona continued their push in the direction of the La Liga title with a snug 4-0 victory over the division’s backside facet Elche on Saturday.
It wasn’t a very inspiring efficiency from Xavi’s facet however the gulf in high quality between the 2 sides ensured it by no means wanted to be, with Robert Lewandowski scoring twice and each Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres getting in on the motion within the second half.
Elche made a vivid begin however quickly reverted to sort, backtracking and sitting deep in an try to frustrate Barcelona – doing so pretty efficiently for the primary 19 minutes earlier than Lewandowski opened the scoring.
Ronald Araujo knocked a free-kick again throughout the field and Lewandowski did properly to shuffle the ball out of his ft and arrow a strike into the nook of the aim.
Elche responded properly and really loved some good spells of possession, though the subsequent actual likelihood fell to Lewandowski as soon as once more because the Pole leapt highest to satisfy a cross contained in the six-yard field, however he obtained his soar all fallacious and someway despatched the ball over the bar.
Jules Kounde then noticed an effort blocked on the road by Omar Mascarell as Barcelona ended what was a little bit of an unsightly first half on prime.
Elche had a great opportunity to grab an equaliser early within the second half when Jose Angel Carmona went bursting by one-on-one, however earlier than he may get his shot away, the full-back’s hamstring gave up on him and despatched him crashing to the bottom.
Moments later, Fati thundered dwelling a second, driving from deep and sending a low effort throughout aim and into the underside nook.
Lewandowski added the third 65 minutes in, choosing up the ball after Gavi had stolen possession and drilling dwelling to take away any doubt concerning the end result.
With the floodgates now totally open, Torres quickly added a fourth, reducing inside from the best wing and bending the ball past Badia.
As had been the case all recreation, Elche refused to lie down they usually did handle loads of half-chances, however they merely didn’t have the standard wanted to interrupt Barcelona down in the long run.
GK: Edgar Badia (4); RB: Helibelton Palacios (4); CB: Pedro Bigas (5); CB: Omar Mascarell (6); LB: Carlos Clerc (5); RM: Tete Morente (5); CM: Jose Angel Carmona (5); CM: Gerard Gumbau (6); LM: Lautaro Blanco (5); AM: Fidel Chaves (5); ST: Pere Milla (5).
Substitutes: Raul Guti (6), Nicolas Fernandez (6), Josan (5), Ezequiel Ponce (5).
GK: Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 6/10 – Busier than he’ll have anticipated to be and needed to trip his luck at occasions.
RB: Jules Kounde – 7/10 – Performed extra like a winger however ought to have executed higher when in entrance of aim.
CB: Ronald Araujo – 7/10 – An aesthetic knockdown for Lewandowski’s opener.
CB: Marcos Alonso – 7/10 – Defensively stable and all the time keen to get entangled in assault the place attainable.
LB: Jordi Alba – 7/10 – Appeared recent as he tried to get entangled as a lot as attainable.
DM: Eric Garcia – 6/10 – A stable exhibiting in midfield. Not examined a lot defensively however stored issues ticking over with some good passing.
CM: Sergi Roberto – 6/10 – Unspectacular however efficient. Superior possession properly however struggled to interrupt down Elche’s defence.
CM: Gavi – 8/10 – Electrical. Appeared again at dwelling in midfield as he charged round to get entangled in nearly every little thing optimistic for Barcelona.
RW: Ferran Torres – 6/10 – A quiet exhibiting except for his well-taken aim.
ST: Robert Lewandowski – 8/10 – Took his targets very properly and will have simply had extra.
LW: Ansu Fati – 6/10 – Not a very spectacular efficiency however cannot fault the tip product.
Substitutes
Franck Kessie (68′ for Gavi) – 6/10 – Stored issues ticking over.
Pablo Torre (77′ for Araujo) – 6/10 – Introduced good vitality in restricted minutes.
Aleix Garrido (83′ for Fati) – N/A
Supervisor
Xavi – 6/10 – Barcelona weren’t significantly spectacular however did not must be. Xavi set his facet up after which waited for his or her superiority to deliver outcomes, and that is what occurred.