Saturday night at the Martínez Valero will feel different for Iñaki Peña, whether anyone else notices or not. Elche host Barcelona at 9 pm, and the goalkeeper will be standing across from the club that still holds his contract and raised him from a teenager into a first-team professional. This game could fade into the background for many, but for him, it’s as important as it gets.
This is not new territory for Peña. He has already faced Barça three times in his career and has usually left some kind
of mark. The first meeting came in March 2022, during his loan spell at Galatasaray, when a Europa League draw set up a tie with Barcelona. The first leg at Camp Nou finished 0-0 and felt closer to a one-man wall vs. an army than a stalemate. Peña flew to keep out a Memphis Depay free kick and reacted instinctively to a Sergio Busquets header. Barcelona eventually went through in the return leg, but by then the message was clear: he belonged at that level.
Back in Catalonia that summer, Peña stayed on and waited. Injuries to Marc-André ter Stegen opened the door, and he walked through it for an extended stretch. Some performances strengthened his case, but others reminded everyone how unforgiving the position is at Barça. By the time Joan García arrived last summer, the picture had shifted again, and a loan to Elche made sense for all sides.
The first reunion this season came on 2 November at Montjuïc. Barcelona won 3-1, though the match turned early. Two goals inside the opening ten minutes left Elche chasing. Peña had little chance with either, and before half-time he pulled off a sharp save to stop the scoreline from getting away. It went largely unnoticed outside Alicante.
Things feel heavier now: Elche have not won a league match in 2026, and patience around the Martínez Valero has thinned. According to local reports, the recent loss to Levante sharpened the criticism toward several players, Peña among them. A close-range finish from a cross raised questions about his positioning, and the stoppage-time winner from a corner caught him caught halfway out. Goalkeeping errors tend to linger in the minds of the press and public.
That pressure feeds into an unsettled situation in goal. Eder Sarabia has rotated between Peña and Dituro, and neither has fully locked the spot down. The data offers Peña some backing. He sits fifth in La Liga for goals prevented, with 4.3, ahead of names like Thibaut Courtois and Unai Simón. Those numbers come with caveats. Teams that concede more shots inflate those figures. Still, they complicate the idea that his season has been a downward slide.
For Barcelona, Peña remains a familiar presence and not a distant loanee. Born in Alicante in 1999, he arrived at La Masia at 13, won the UEFA Youth League, and signed a contract extension last summer before heading out again. Nothing about Saturday will settle his future, but it adds another layer to a relationship that has never fully gone quiet.
