Barcelona have opened up a temporary four-point gap at the top of the La Liga table thanks to a 3-1 win away to Elche on Saturday night. The Blaugrana played some fantastic attacking football but missed
an astonishing amount of gigantic chances, and only Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford could find the net on a night where the Catalans might have easily scored in double digits. Seriously.
Reactions & Observations
- I have watched football for almost 30 years, and I’ve watched A LOT of games during that time. And I can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, that I have never watched a game quite like this. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing, and I legitimately started laughing about 35 minutes into the game.
- Here’s a quick summary: Elche stayed true to themselves and decided to go toe-to-toe against Barça, but lft themselves very exposed at the back. That led to several chances for a Blaugrana team that played sublime attacking football, passing the ball beautifully through the lines and finding themselves in very dangerous positions time, and time, and time, and time, and time, and time, and time, and time again.
- Lamine Yamal scored a beautiful goal five minutes into the action and it truly felt like the floodgates would open very quickly as Barça created an astonishing amount of chances, but they started missing them. All of them, and the misses were so strange that it was almost funny to see world-class players somehow forget how to hit the target.
- The finishing was truly atrocious, and Elche somehow equalized when they should have already been down four or five goals. Barça did regain the lead through Ferran Torres just before halftime, but they should have gone into the break winning by AT LEAST 6-1. I am not exaggerating. Instead it was 2-1, and this game was inexplicably close.
- Barça continued to create and miss chances in the second half, though Elche’s defending was a little better and didn’t allow as many dramatic opportunities as in the opening period. Still, Barça should have scored at least three or four more in the second half, but Marcus Rashford was the only one to find the net and give Barça a two-goal advantage.
- The standout players from a Blaugrana perspective were Lamine Yamal and Frenkie de Jong, who were sensational for all 90 minutes, and Marc Bernal, who had an outstanding cameo off the bench.
- But there are some serious injury concerns: Raphinha had to leave the game at halftime with what looked like a hip injury, Jules Kounde went down with an apparent muscle issue, and Yamal was on the ground at the end grabbing the groin that has given him so many issues this season. Hopefully the news on all three players is positive.
- Barça more than deserved the win and should — not could — have scored nine or maybe 10 on the night if their finishing was even mediocre. Seriously, their xG was almost a full 7.00. SEVEN!!! It’s truly remarkable that this game only ended 3-1, but the three points are the most important thing on one of the strangest nights of this Barça season.
