Partly thanks to solo Ansu Fati, Barcelona hits a 60-meter gap of 15 points


Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 10:52 PM• Martin van Mourik

Barcelona recorded an easy win in LaLiga on Saturday night. On a visit to Elche, the team of coach Xavi did not run into problems at any time: 0-4. Robert Lewandowski scored twice, while Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati also got their names on the scoreboard. Thanks to the victory, the lead of leader Barcelona on closest pursuer Real Madrid has increased to fifteen points for the time being, already has the Royal still a game in hand.

Goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen stood under the crossbar as usual. In the rear, two changes were made compared to the game won against Real Madrid (2-1): Andreas Christensen and Alejandro Baldé were replaced by Marcos Alonso and Jordi Alba respectively. In midfield, only Sergi Roberto played his second game in a row; in the absence of Sergio Busquets and Frenkie de Jong, Eric García and Gavi got the chance to show themselves. The vanguard was formed by Ferran, Lewandowski and Ansu Fati. It was also a special evening for Aleix Garrido, who made his debut in the first team as a substitute.

From the first minute of play, Barcelona had nothing to fear from last minute Elche. Although no great opportunities arose in the opening phase, Barcelona created a lot of threat. The first big opportunity immediately resulted in a goal in the twentieth minute of play. From a free kick by Alba, Araújo headed the ball through to Lewandowski, who was able to shoot in from close range: 0-1. It was the seventh time this season that the Polish striker opened the score in a LaLiga game. It took ten minutes after the break before the second Catalan goal fell.

Ansu Fati got the ball in front of the center line and sprinted towards the hostile box, where he cleared space for the shot and doubled the score with a diagonal swipe. With the second goal, Elche’s resistance was finally broken, because ten minutes later Barcelona ran even further away. Lewandowski scored his second of the evening. The striker took advantage of a careless loss of the ball and punished the fumbling in the rear by finishing in a cold-blooded way: 0-3. The final chord was played by Ferran, who, after a nice assumption on the edge of the sixteen, made it 0-4 with a placed shot.

No. Team m W G v +/- Pnt
1 Barcelona 27 23 2 2 44 71
2 RealMadrid 26 17 5 4 30 56
3 Atletico Madrid 26 15 6 5 23 51
4 real society 26 14 6 6 11 48
5 RealBetis 26 13 6 7 8 45
6 Villarreal 26 12 5 9 8 41
7 Athletic Club 27 10 7 10 8 37
8 Rayo Vallecano 26 9 9 8 1 36
9 Osasuna 27 9 8 10 -5 35
10 Girona 27 9 7 11 0 34
11 Celta de Vigo 26 9 7 10 -3 34
12 Real Majorca 27 9 6 12 -5 33
13 Seville 27 8 7 12 -11 31
14 Getafe 27 7 9 11 -7 30
15 Real Valladolid 26 8 4 14 -18 28
16 Cadiz 27 6 10 11 -19 28
17 Espanyol 27 6 9 12 -11 27
18 valencia 26 7 5 14 -3 26
19 Almeria 26 7 5 14 -15 26
20 Elche 27 2 7 18 -36 13