Barcelona rose to the top of the Spanish Football League temporarily, following its victory over Elche 3-0 today, Saturday, in the sixth stage of the competition.
Barcelona raised its score to 16 points in first place, to lead the competition temporarily, one point ahead of Real Madrid, who faces its traditional rivals Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
On the other hand, Elche’s balance froze at one point in the twentieth and last place.
Barcelona advanced through Robert Lewandowski in the 34th minute, before Memphis Depay added the second goal in the 41st minute.
In the 48th minute, Lewandowski scored his second and third goal for Barcelona.
Elche completed the match with ten men following his player Gonzalo Verdo was sent off in the 14th minute.
The match began with pressure from Barcelona, who tried from the beginning to confuse his guest’s accounts and score an early goal.
In the 14th minute, Elche’s Gonzalo Verdo was subjected to a direct expulsion, following blocking Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who was heading towards goalkeeper Edgar Badia.
Barcelona took advantage of the numerical shortage in the ranks of its guest, and tried to score the first goal on more than one occasion, but the Elche defense succeeded in keeping the danger out of its goal.
In the 34th minute, Barcelona scored the first goal through Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who received a cross from his colleague Alejandro Baldi, to put the ball with a shot into the net, scoring the first goal.
Barcelona continued to put pressure on its opponent, who did not attack goalkeeper Ter Stegen much and did not launch many attacks throughout the first half.
In the 41st minute, Barcelona scored its second goal through Dutchman Memphis Depay, who received a cross from Baldy inside the penalty area, to receive the ball and evade the Elche defender and put the ball into the net.
Barcelona midfielder Pedri scored a goal two minutes later, but the referee canceled it following using the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technique, which showed the player’s offside.
The rest of the first half minutes did not witness anything new, so the referee blew his final whistle with Barcelona leading 2-0.
With the beginning of the second half, Barcelona continued to put pressure on its opponent, who continued to suffer with the numerical shortage.
In the 48th minute, Lewandowski scored his second and third goal for Barcelona, following benefiting from the effort of his colleague Depay, who in turn took advantage of the Elche defender’s error in taking the ball out, to pass the ball to the Polish striker to put the latter in the net easily.
Barcelona tried to add the fourth goal, and the Elche team became trapped in its penalty area, and did not come out to launch attacks on the goal of Ter Stegen, who did not face difficult tests in the second half.
Lewandowski missed the opportunity to add the fourth goal in the 71st minute, who hit a powerful ball over the goal post.
The rest of the second half did not witness anything new, so the referee blew his whistle at the end of the match, with Barcelona winning 3-0.
