Barcelona 3-1 Elche: Flick's team bounce back from Clasico defeat

Barcelona bounced back from their Clasico defeat to keep pace with rivals Real Madrid at the LaLiga summit following a 3-1 win over Elche. 

Having seen Madrid temporarily go eight points clear following their thrashing of Valencia on Saturday, Barca hit back in an entertaining encounter at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. 

Lamine Yamal needed just nine minutes to break the deadlock as he picked out the bottom-left corner from inside the box after Alejandro Balde won possession back on the left.

Another defensive error from Elche two minutes later was punished again by Barcelona. This time, Ferran Torres was on hand to tuck the ball home from Fermin Lopez's cross. 

But two minutes before the break, Elche reduced the deficit through Rafa Mir, who raced in behind the Barca defence before curling past Wojciech Szczesny. 

Hansi Flick's men came close to restoring their two-goal advantage in first-half stoppage time, but Torres' shot on the swivel was brilliantly repelled by Barca loanee Inaki Pena. 

However, Elche continued to cause the Blaugrana problems, with only the top of the crossbar denying Mir his second of the match nine minutes after the restart. 

And the visitors were made to pay for their profligacy just after the hour when Marcus Rashford crashed a fierce effort in off the underside of the crossbar from close range. 

Not deterred by going two goals down, Elche continued to press Barcelona as Mir struck the right post soon after, which he then followed up with a tame half-volley at Szczesny. 

Barcelona were unable to find a fourth, despite the introductions of returning duo Robert Lewandowski and Dani Olmo from injury, but it mattered little for Flick's side. 

Data Debrief: Star-studded attack bails Barca out

Barcelona were far from their very best here, despite registering an expected goals (xG) total of 1.94 from their 17 shots to Elche's 0.71 from nine attempts, but their individual quality in the final third once again proved to be the difference. 

Indeed, along with scoring his second LaLiga goal, Rashford ended the game with team-high totals for dribbles (seven), duels contested (10) and shots (six).

He now has 11 goal involvements (six goals, five assists) in all competitions this season, a total only bettered by Kylian Mbappe (20) and Julian Alvarez (12) among LaLiga players.

Yamal, meanwhile, has now scored 17 goals in 80 LaLiga appearances. Only Mbappe (23) has scored more goals before turning 19 in Europe's top five leagues in the 21st century.

There was also a milestone moment for Torres. The Spaniard netted his 50th goal for Barcelona in all competitions (170 appearances), with 25 coming under Xavi (113 games) and 25 under Flick (57).