Marcus Rashford was on target for Barcelona as they bounced back from their El Clasico defeat with a 3-1 win over Elche in La Liga.
Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres gave Hansi Flick’s men an early 2-0 lead before Rafa Mir pulled one back for the visitors. Rashford then sealed the win in the 61st minute to restore Barca’s second-place spot, five points behind leaders Real Madrid.
Elche thought they had taken the lead earlier, but the goal was ruled out for offside. From there, Barcelona took charge. Yamal opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a fine left-footed strike after a pass from Alejandro Balde.
Just two minutes later, Fermin Lopez took advantage of a defensive slip and set up Torres for an easy tap-in to make it 2-0.
Elche responded three minutes before half-time, with Mir breaking the offside trap and curling a lovely shot into the bottom corner.
Rashford had a goal disallowed early in the second half, but he got his reward soon after, smashing home from close range after a neat pass from Fermin.
Mir came close to scoring again, hitting the post twice, but Barcelona held firm to secure all three points. The win also extended Barca’s unbeaten home run against Elche in La Liga to 25 matches, with 18 victories in that stretch.
