Elche CF (10th, 1pt) vs FC Barcelona (14th, 0pts)
Competition/Round: 2026-27 La Liga, Matchday 2
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Roony Bardghji, Frenkie de Jong (out), João Cancelo, Alejandro Balde, Rodri, Marc Casadó (doubt)
Elche Outs & Doubts: Yago Santiago, Adam Boayar (doubt)
Date/Time: Sunday, August 23, 2026, 9.30pm CET (Barcelona), 8.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 1am IST (India, Monday)
Venue: Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero, Elche, Spain
Referee: Alejandro Quintero González
VAR: Guillermo Cuadra Fernández
How to watch on TV:
ABC (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
The wait is over: exactly three months after their final match of last season, a new journey begins for Barcelona as the reigning back-to-back La Liga champions begin the 2026-27 campaign with a match against Elche at the Manuel Martínez Valero Stadium on Sunday Night Fútbol.
Barça come into this one looking for a successful start to what is expected to be a very tough title defense, with Real Madrid off to a winning start at Espanyol and promising to give the Catalans all they can handle under José Mourinho.
Winning the league title is always the main priority for Barça, but there are big expectations in Europe and the summer transfer window is still open as the Blaugrana search for a world-class striker and make several other moves in the market, so there is a lot on the minds of fans as the season is set to begin.
Sunday’s clash against Elche kicks off a very busy period with eight games in 29 days across La Liga and the Champions League. Since Barça’s opening match last weekend was postponed due to the sucess of the Blaugrana representatives at the World Cup, Hansi Flick’s side will be forced to make up for lost time with a lot of games in a short time before the first extended international break of the season.
The coach probably welcomes the busy calendar so he can give plenty of early minutes to his big-name players who have spent virtually no time on the training pitch, and Hansi has already warned Barça fans that things may not run so smoothly over the next four weeks as the squad gets into a rhythm.
Flick also said there are no excuses not to pick up wins in the meantime, however, so he expects his players to show up and find a way to get the job done on Sunday. Their opponents are Elche, who survived relegation in dramatic fashion last season and will look to avoid the drop once again.
Elche were the most pleasant watch out of all the relegation candidates last season as they remained fully committed to the idea of playing high-intensity, high-possession attacking football under former Barça assistant Eder Sarabia, who did a wonderful job and stuck to his ideas until the end and was rewarded for it.
Sarabia decided to step down from the head coach role for mental health reasons at the end of last season, and was replaced by Martín Anselmi who is still young and unproven in Europe’s top leagues despite a couple of good jobs in South America.
Anselmi seems committed to sticking to Sararbia’s principles at least to start, as Elche played the same 3-5-2 formation as the previous boss and had over 60% possession in a 1-1 draw away to Deportivo A Coruña at Riazor last weekend.
The problem for Elche is they lost their top three scorers from last season and replaced them with mostly young and unproven forwards at the top flight level, so they might struggle to turn their attacking purpose into goals this season.
Elche should still be a tough test for Barça, however, especially a Barça team at the very start of the season with several key players still searching for rhythm. Elche’s home atmosphere was key to their survival last season, and they’ll undoubtedly push their team to cause a huge upset against the champs.
It’s time for a new journey, and Barça must start the right away. It might not look pretty, but there is a job to be done.
Let’s dance. Finally.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Joan; Eric, Christensen, Martín, Cancelo; Fermín, Bernal, Espart; Yamal, Hamza, Raphinha
Elche (3-5-2): Dituro; Chust, Affengruber, Redondo; Sangaré, Villar, Aguado, Neto, Valera; Houary, Niño
PREDICTION
Elche showed in the opener they remain an attack-minded side who can give Barça plenty of trouble, but I’m trusting the good guys to find a way to start the season with all three points: 3-1 to the visitors.
