Barcelona beat a weakened Elche after defeat by Bayern. Lewandowski scored twice, Depay once

In the sixth round of La Liga, Barcelona wanted to avenge Tuesday’s 0:2 defeat to Bayern in the Champions League. On Saturday, at 16:15, they faced Elche, the last team in the table. Before the match, the visitors had only one point, while the Catalan club, which was in second place, had thirteen.

Xavi, the coach of the home team, made five changes in the starting line-up compared to the match in Munich. Only Christensen, Alonso, Busquets, Gavi and Raphinha started on the bench this time, while García, Balde, Frenkie de Jong, Kessié and also Depay played from the first minute.

The important moment of the match came in the 14th minute, when Elche stopper and captain Verdú almost stopped the escaping Lewandowski with a rugby tackle. The Spanish footballer was shown a red card.

The first significant scoring chance came ten minutes later inside the penalty area, when Depay’s shot from the left side was parried by goalkeeper Badía with his foot outside the three posts.

After another ten minutes had elapsed, Barcelona led 1-0. Balde sent in a sharp pass from the left, which found Lewandowski in the small area. The Polish cannonballer had no problem clearing the ball into the open net.

In the 41st minute, Depay scored a goal after a swerving turn and, despite the tight defending of the visiting player, finished uncompromisingly under the crossbar. A few tens of seconds later, Lewandowski scored again from close range, but this time VAR ruled offside. At the same time, Elche coach Francisco Rodríguez was sent off for protesting.

Three minutes into the second half, 85,000 spectators at Camp Nou saw the score increase to 3-0. Thanks to a mix-up in the visiting defence, the ball was played to Lewandowski, who fired from the centre of the box to the left post for his second goal of the game.

The Blaugranas did not take any of the many scoring opportunities in the following period. The home team produced a total of 25 shots. On the other hand, a weakened Elche could only manage one finish in the whole match. The Catalan team is at the top of the table at least until Sunday, while the team from the south-east of Spain is still at the tail of the table.

On Friday, Valladolid lost 0-1 to Cadiz in the sixth round of the Spanish league, and on Saturday afternoon Mallorca only needed one goal to defeat Almería. The highlight of this weekend is Sunday’s Madrid derby between Atlético and Real, which starts at 9pm.

Source: La Liga, Nova Sport 4