Elche on Sunday lost to Barça on a home defeat at Estadio Martínez Valero. Elche wanted to continue adding points after a 2-2 draw against Real Valladolid while Barcelona were hoping to increase their winning streak after back-to-back victories against Real Sociedad and Levante. As the table looks today, Elche are in 19th place, with 17 points from 20 matches, while Barcelona sit in 3rd, with 37 points from 20.
It was an impressive opening from Barcelona, following a goal from Frenkie De Jong in the 39th minute, thereby seeing the first half to a 1-0.
Barcelona continued to apply pressure the second half and were rewarded, beginning with Riqui Puig opening the scoring just before the final whistle. The game ended with a 2-0 victory for Barcelona.
For Elche Tete Morente, Luismi and Nino came on for Raul Guti, Emiliano Rigoni and Victor Rodriguez, while Barça brought on Trincao and Riqui Puig to replace Ousmane Dembele and Pedri.
The referee booked two players from Barcelona, Sergio Busquets and Antoine Griezmann.
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Elche will next travel to Valencia, while Barcelona will face Athletic Bilbao at home.
| Elche: | Edgar Badia, Antonio Barragan, Gonzalo Verdu, Diego Gonzalez, Johan Mojica, Josan, Raul Guti (Tete Morente, min.74), Ivan Marcone, Victor Rodriguez (Nino, min.82), Lucas Boye and Emiliano Rigoni (Luismi, min.75) |
| Barcelona: | Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Oscar Mingueza, Samuel Umtiti, Ronald Araujo, Jordi Alba, Antoine Griezmann, Pedri (Riqui Puig, min.87), Frenkie De Jong, Sergio Busquets, Ousmane Dembele (Trincao, min.74) and Martin Braithwaite |
| Stadium: | Estadio Martínez Valero |
| Goals: | Frenkie De Jong (0-1, min. 39) and Riqui Puig (0-2, min. 89) |