Elx: Barcelona secured an important 2-0 away win at Elche to keep their place in La Liga intact. The victory sees Barca remain in third place, behind Real Madrid and leaders Atletico Madrid.
Barca were without captain and talismanic Lionel Messi who was facing the second of a two-game ban for his red card in last weekend’s Supercopa final against Athletic Bilbao. Frenkie de Jong and Riqui Puig scored at the end of each half to secure the points for the Blaugranas.
Barca were dominant from the first touch despite Ronald Araujo and Antoine Griezmann missing close-range headers early on. Elche parked the bus and had all eleven men behind the ball looking to protect their goal and made it tough for Ronald Koeman’s men to move the ball in the final third.
However, De Jong opened the scoring on 39 minutes as he reacted quickest to score an easy tap-in. Martin Braithwaite attempted to cross the ball from the left trying to find Griezmann, but instead González deflected the cross against his own net and De Jong got to the ball before it crossed the line and scored the easiest tap in.
The hosts came very close to scoring an equaliser just 10 minutes into the second half but Emiliano Rigona forced a great save out of Marc Andre ter Stegen.
Barca wrapped up the points in 89 minutes when De Jong set up Puig to score and double the lead of the team. A brilliant run and cross by De Jong and a beautiful header by Puig, who came off the bench to seal the deal.
