Barcelona extend La Liga lead with impressive victory over Elche | OneFootball

Elche 1-3 Barcelona

Barcelona have made it three wins in a row across all competitions, having defeated Elche at the Manuel Martínez Valero.

Lamine Yamal has been one of the league’s best players this season, and it was he that opened the scoring inside the first 10 minutes. Dani Olmo plays through the 18-year-old, who skips away from former teammate Inaki Pena before tapping the ball into the empty net.

Lamine Yamal was one of the stars of the show in midweek as Barcelona saw off FC Copenhagen in midweek, and he was back on it here. However, the Catalans were not ahead for too long as Elche netted an equaliser on the half hour mark courtesy of former Real Madrid striker Alvaro Rodriguez.

Fortunately for Barcelona, they retook the lead before half time courtesy of Ferran Torres. The Spain international passed up a number of chances in the first period, but on this occasion, he made no mistake after great work from Frenkie de Jong, who took the ball away from Pena before setting up his teammate.

Image via Angel Martinez/Getty Images

Barcelona missed several more chances in the second half, and this threatened their chances of victory. However, they did manage to make it 3-1. Lamine Yamal’s cutback was stopped, but Marcus Rashford slammed home the loose ball from close to give the Catalans a two-goal advantage

There were more efforts that Barcelona let slip away late on, but on this occasion, they were not made to pay for their profligacy. However, they did lose Jules Kounde when he pulled up, which will be a concern ahead of a difficult run of fixtures.

Barcelona extend La Liga advantage ahead over Real Madrid

Nevertheless, the result is what counts right now, and it sees Barcelona extend their lead at the top of La Liga to four points. Real Madrid will hope to cut that back to one when they host Rayo Vallecano at the Bernabeu on Sunday afternoon.