Yamal’s feeling better
Lamine Yamal swept concerns over his fitness to one side on Sunday by opening the scoring for Barcelona with less than nine minutes on the clock.
Elche had actually had the better of the opening exchanges but Yamal’s early strike put Barcelona in charge and on the road to victory early on at Montjuic.
Credit must go to Alejandro Balde for pouncing on a loose ball, driving forwards and picking out Yamal. Barca’s teen then cut inside and unleashed a ferocious shot that flew past the goalkeeper.
His celebrations, pointing to the badge before launching into a routine with Balde, showed just how much he’d enjoyed that goal after all the pre-match talk about his pubalgia and speculation about his private life.
Hansi Flick had said beforehand that Yamal was feeling better even though he does still feel some discomfort at times. His goal certainly hinted at that as he took his tally to three goals and four assists in his seven league outings this season.
Not bad going for a player who is said to have seen his “ability to move and shoot reduced by almost 50%” due to current injury issue.
Flick tries another center back pairing
Flick tried yet another central defensive pairing on Sunday, starting Ronald Araujo and Eric Garcia together for the first time this season and giving Pau Cubarsi a complete rest. The teenager was named on the bench but was an unused substitute.
Barca’s defense has been the subject of plenty of talk this season, particularly after Inigo Martinez’s departure, and Flick is still searching for the right formula.
The Barcelona boss has now tried five different centre-back pairings in Barca’s 14 games of the season so far but saw his team once again fail to keep a clean sheet.
This time it was Rafa Mir getting in behind the Barca backline far too easily, with Araujo unable to get close enough to the Elche man before he fired past Szczesny. It was the type of goal Barca fans are getting sick of seeing.
The visitors will feel unlucky they didn’t score a few more, too. They hit the woodwork twice during the 90 minutes and managed nine shots on goal in total against Barca.
Fermin Lopez is absolutely flying
Elche’s goal made what had been a comfortable game for Barcelona much more tense, until Fermin Lopez popped up again to tee up Marcus Rashford to make it 3-1.
Lopez’s double in the game continues his sensational form and mean he has four goals and two assists in his last three matches for Barcelona.
The 22-year-old is emerging as an increasingly vital player in Hansi Flick’s squad, particularly with Pedri and Gavi both sidelined currently, and the hope will be that he can continue this momentum throughout the campaign.
The standing ovation given to Lopez when he was subbed on 65 minutes was well deserved as Hansi Flick sent on the fit-again Dani Olmo for the last part of the game.
Yet Olmo has his work cut out getting back into the Barcelona team. He’s only scored one this season and there’s no doubt that Lopez has been far more effective and is one of the first names on Flick’s teamsheet right now.
