{"id":897,"date":"2025-11-02T20:32:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=897"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:32:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:32:03","slug":"barcelona-beat-elche-3-1-to-stay-in-touch-with-la-liga-leaders-real-madrid-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=897","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona beat Elche 3-1 to stay in touch with La Liga leaders Real Madrid | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead\"><em>Dominant football win moves defending La Liga champions to second place in the standings, five adrift of archrivals Madrid.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-dates\">\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Published On 2 Nov 2025<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">2 Nov 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-share\" data-testid=\"rich-share\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__button-wrapper\"><button class=\"rich-share__button row\" aria-expanded=\"false\"><\/p>\n<p>Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n<p><svg class=\"icon icon--share2 icon--primary icon--16 \" viewbox=\"0 0 20 16\" version=\"1.1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><title>share2<\/title><path fill=\"#000\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M11.688 9.048c-.659 0-1.252.282-1.673.733l-4.92-2.45c.016-.115.028-.232.028-.352 0-.117-.011-.23-.027-.343l4.913-2.423a2.285 2.285 0 0 0 1.68.739C12.964 4.952 14 3.899 14 2.6 14 1.302 12.965.25 11.688.25S9.377 1.302 9.377 2.601c0 .117.01.23.027.343L4.49 5.367a2.285 2.285 0 0 0-1.68-.739C1.536 4.628.5 5.681.5 6.979c0 1.299 1.035 2.35 2.312 2.35.659 0 1.252-.281 1.673-.731l4.92 2.45a2.357 2.357 0 0 0-.029.351c0 1.299 1.035 2.351 2.312 2.351S14 12.698 14 11.399s-1.035-2.35-2.312-2.35Z\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p class=\"p1\">Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford struck for Barcelona as they earned a 3-1 win over Elche in La Liga to bounce back from last weekend\u2019s El Clasico defeat and move\u00a0back into second place to trail leaders Real Madrid by five points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Barca continued to struggle in defence and Elche had chances to cause an upset on Sunday, scoring through Rafa Mir, with the striker also twice hitting the woodwork.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 4 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p class=\"p1\">Hansi Flick\u2019s Barca have failed to keep a clean sheet in six consecutive league games, in the midst of an injury crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The champions were missing Pedri, Gavi, and Joan Garcia among others, but were able to bring on Robert Lewandowski and Dani Olmo following spells out of action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Teenage star Lamine Yamal underwhelmed in last week\u2019s defeat by Real Madrid after coming back from a groin issue, but looked more spritely against Elche.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Coached by Eder Sarabia, a former Barcelona assistant coach under Quique Setien, the ninth-placed visitors came to play and impressed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Barca took the lead after nine minutes when Alejandro Balde drove forward and fed Yamal in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The winger took a touch to set himself and then whipped a clinical finish past former Barca goalkeeper Inaki Pena, a teammate of his last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Three minutes later, Torres doubled the hosts\u2019 advantage, tapping home after Fermin Lopez broke into space down the left and provided an inch-perfect cross.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The striker revealed a T-shirt paying tribute to Valencia, his home region, a year on from the deadly flooding that hit Spain\u2019s east coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lopez and Rashford fired narrowly off-target while Pena saved from Torres as Barca squandered some presentable chances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Mir pulled a goal back shortly before half-time. Barca tried to catch the forward offside, but he was in his own half when he was played in. Mir bent a shot past Ronald Araujo and Barca goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and in at the far post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Torres might have scored again before the interval, but Pena produced a superb save to tip his strike to safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Early in the second half, Mir clipped the top of the crossbar with a curling effort as Elche battled well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Rashford sealed Barca\u2019s victory with a superb finish after Lopez picked him out with a cross, for his second league goal of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Veteran goalkeeper Szczesny pushed a Mir effort onto the post to save Barca sweating over their advantage in the final stages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt was very important to start strong and intense. From there, we could take the game where we wanted it to go,\u201d Torres told DAZN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe knew the type of game they were going to play, and we started very strong. We were a bit off afterwards, but we found our spirit and our intensity again in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dominant football win moves defending La Liga champions to second place in the standings, five adrift of archrivals Madrid. Published On 2 Nov 20252 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford struck for Barcelona as they earned a 3-1 win over Elche in La [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}