Football News: Barcelona climbed to third place in La Liga after beating Elche 2-1 on Sunday, with Memphis Depay scoring a late penalty to complete a hard-fought victory. Elche took a shock lead at the Martinez Valero when Fidel took advantage of a Pedri error on the stroke of half-time, but Barca rallied with the help of two replacements. On the hour, Ferran Torres diverted in from close range before Depay converted a penalty in the 84th minute after drawing Elche’s Antonio Barragan into a handball. “It appeared we were going to lose a game we didn’t deserve to lose,” Xavi Hernandez, Barca’s coach, stated. “We deserved to win by a larger margin.”
Barcelona now sits two points ahead of Real Betis and three ahead of Atletico Madrid in the league, with Betis and Atletico meeting later on Sunday in a critical race for the top four.
It also extends Xavi’s side’s outstanding run of form, with the team having not lost in the league since December and having scored four goals in three consecutive games for the first time since 2017.
Barcelona were ninth when Xavi was appointed in November, but they may now have their sights set on Sevilla, who are only seven points ahead in second.
“We have four wins in a row, this has not happened for a long time, it’s a good sign,” said Xavi. “The players believe in what we are doing. We are on the right path.”
In the first half, Barcelona had the better of the chances, with the finest of them falling to Frenkie de Jong, who sprinted in behind Edgar Badia but couldn’t beat him.
Then Ousmane Dembele ran clear, and De Jong’s follow-up was pushed off the line by Diego Gonzalez.
Elche then delivered a sucker-punch a minute before half-time when Barca failed to deal with a simple goal-kick downfield, and Pedri pushed the ball back, past his own defence, and through to Fidel in the midst of the pandemonium. Fidel took a few steps forward and blasted a shot towards the distant corner.
On the hour, Barcelona equalised after moving the ball from left to right, where Dembele drove to the goal line and put up a cross. Jordi Alba was unable to make a clean catch, but Torres was in the ideal position to direct the ball in.
Elche were tiring, and Barca were desperate for a goal. In the 82nd minute, Depay wriggled around Barragan, the ball bounced up, and Barragan instinctively stretched his arm to meet it.
After consulting the review, the referee pointed to the penalty spot, where Depay swept the penalty into the top corner.
Alba and Sergio Busquets were both relieved to see penalty requests for handballs waved away before Guido Carrillo headed for the corner in the 94th minute. Barca held on when Marc-Andre ter Stegen dived.
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