Barça 3-0 Elche: Recap
Boring, then exciting, and three points
Barcelona are back to winning ways in La Liga thanks to a comfortable 3-0 win over Elche at Camp Nou on Wednesday. After a slow first half the Blaugrana turned it up in the second and easily dominated a weak Elche side, with very good goals and a solid performance.
FIRST HALF
The word to describe the first half was mediocre. Elche parked the bus but were mediocre at their defending, allowing enough space for Barça to create if they wanted to. But Barça were mediocre in possession, going through the motions with their passing and not really going for it in the final third.
Barça’s best moments came whenever Francisco Trincão got on the ball, and it was a beautiful move by the Portuguese that resulted in Barça’s best chance, but he couldn’t get good contact in the six-yard box and Badía made a solid save.
Elche had a couple of dangerous moments on the counter, with Boyé missing a very good early chance and Pere Milla forcing a save out of Marc-André ter Stegen, and that was halftime.
SECOND HALF
Barça began the second half by scoring a great goal: Lionel Messi went on a run and played a one-two with Martin Braithwaite who gave it back with a gorgeous backheel, and Messi found the back of the net for the opener.
Elche looked dejected as soon as the goal went in, and they couldn’t recover and offer any threat. Barça looked very comfortable on the ball and raised their intensity to create more chances, and more goals came: Messi scored his and Barça’s second after an incredible solo run by Frenkie De Jong, and Jordi Alba joined the party after an assist by Braithwaite.
There was no action in the final 20 minutes as Barça just ran out the clock, and the final whistle came to end a routine victory for the Catalans.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Piqué (Lenglet 76’), Umtiti, Alba (Dest 76’); De Jong, Pjanic (Dembélé 46’), Pedri; Trincão (Busquets 66’), Messi, Braithwaite (Griezmann 76’)
Goals: Messi (48’, 68’), Alba (73’)
Elche: Badía; Barragán, Verdú, Sánchez, Mojica; Cifuentes (Fidel 60’), Guti, Mfulu (Luismi 81’), Rigoni (Morente 60’); Milla (Nino 72’); Boyé (Carillo 72’)
Goals: None
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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