A much-changed Barcelona maintained their impressive run in La Liga, thrashing Elche 4-0 to distance themselves even further from second-placed Real Madrid.
The level of the opposition, who are currently sitting at the bottom of the league table and headed into the game winless in the last 20 league meetings against Barca, combined with a number of injury concerns at hand led to Xavi naming some of his second-choice options in the starting XI. Much to his delight, they delivered in fine fashion.
Robert Lewandowski gave the visitors the lead in the 20th minute after finishing Ronald Araújo’s headed assist from close range. In the second half, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres joined the Poland international in adding to Elche’s misery by scoring three more unanswered goals.
Here are our player ratings for the Barcelona players from their 4-0 win against Elche.
Marc-André ter Stegen (6/10)
Another day, another clean sheet for the German goalkeeper. However, in this match he didn’t have to work too hard to keep his net unrattled, with Elche only managing two shots on target. Huge credit to the Blaugrana’s intense pressing that not only led to Lewandowski’s second but also prevented Sebastián Beccacece’s men from enjoying significant time on the ball at the opposite end.