Welcome back to TalkBarca. We are going to talk about the Match Review of FC Barcelona vs Elche in this article. FC Barcelona finally got back on winning ways after winning 3-0 against Elche. The game took place at Camp Nou. This was a must-win for the Blaugranans to keep them alive in the league title race.
Ronald Koemann’s men are now 3rd on the points table, 5 points behind Atletico Madrid. The title race is on and the only thing which can lead Barcelona to glory is consistency and discipline.
FC BARCELONA VS ELCHE MATCH REVIEW
FIRST HALF
Barcelona is having a very tough time despite the win against Elche. However, things were much worse before the players went out to play this game. They had lost to PSG in the Champions League and drew against Cadiz in La Liga. Ronald Koemann started Trincao and Martin Braithwaite ahead of Antoine Griezmann and Dembele. Furthermore, Koemann also opted for a completely unexpected Center Back partnership as well. He started Umtiti and Gerrard Pique together. Oscar Mingueza started as the Right Back and Alba served as the LB. Sergio Busquests rested as expected and Pjanic started ahead of him.
The game started on a very good note as the Blaugranas were full of energy and wanted to get going right from the start. However, the problem in the Barca system remained the same. Barcelona created many chances, yet they were unable to finish. Trincao and Braith were very good and were making the most out of the opportunity given to them. Trincao had a couple of shots at the goal during the early moments of the game. De Jong and Pedri looked very energetic as well. Elche’s keeper did an amazing job as well. He made good saves to deny Trincao as well as De Jong from scoring goals once or twice.
The half ended with both sides without any score on the board. The home side went inside the tunnel knowing that they have to start converting chances if they want to remain dominant in the title race.
FIRST HALF: BARCELONA 0-0 ELCHE
SECOND HALF
Barcelona came in for the second half with a much better attitude than the first half. The energy levels were even higher and the team attacked the opponents from all ends. This resulted in an FC Barcelona goal during the 48th minute of the game, right after the beginning of the second half. It was Lionel Messi who found the net for his team. It was a beautiful one-two play between Messi and Martin Braithwaite. Martin gave a backheel pass to Messi who finished it comfortably.
Barcelona got in the mood right away. The team began to show its real potential. Our players are world-class, we know that, but that was the point where they began to show it. The team got into the flow and made things very difficult for Elche. FC Barcelona got its second goal during the 69th minute. De Jong passed the ball to Messi after dribbling through multiple players. Lionel showed his quality and scored a very mesmerizing goal. 2-0 to FC Barcelona! Barcelona kept the domination going and Elche had no idea how to respond to that. The home side created a lot of chances. However, the scoreline could have been a lot more if even half of the chances were converted. Finishing still needs a lot of work from this FC Barcelona team. The defense was better. However, we cannot jump to any conclusions about the defense because the team was not very threatening.
FC Barcelona got its 3rd and final goal of the game during the 72nd minute of the game. It was an overall complete team effort from the back to the front. Jordi Alba initiated the attack. He gave it to Lionel Messi who crossed the ball to Martin Braithwaite who passed it back to Jordi. Jordi finished the ball comfortably and registered another goal for FC Barcelona.
FC Barcelona played high-quality football in this encounter. However, they still need to work on a few aspects before they can start pulling off similar performances against bigger teams.
Hats off to the Blaugranas for this performance.
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