Lamine Yamal is having a blast with a Barça team that's even more of a leader.

BarcelonaIt takes real courage to look a team like Barça in the eye and decide to go toe-to-toe with them. And Elche is one of those teams, as daring as their coach, Eder Sarabia. But the world is full of brave souls who end up defeated, and Elche's approach was an invitation for Barça to create a barrage of scoring opportunities in a highly entertaining match where Flick's men managed to finish the job despite their lackluster finishing. Barça could have scored a ton of goals with more accuracy. Sarabia's audacity led to a beautiful game in which Flick's team strengthened their position at the top of the table while Lamine Yamal had a field day with so much space.

Some teams try to keep things quiet when they face Barça. Elche, on the other hand, did the complete opposite. Everything imaginable happened at the Martínez Valero. Despite some key absences, Sarabia deployed his defense in midfield, and a frantic exchange of blows ensued, at times making the midfield virtually nonexistent. Within five minutes, Lamine Yamal had already made the first save with ease from the home defense. Another familiar face, Iñaki Peña, hesitated on his clearance, and the genius from Rocafonda capitalized, further padding his already impressive stats. As the season progresses, Lamine's level of play continues to rise. A good sign.

Flick had started with De Jong and Fermín in midfield, leaving Lewandowski on the bench to prioritize Ferran, who missed a host of chances. Well, everyone missed. Fermín, Ferran, Raphinha, Olmo... Everyone could have scored a couple of goals in a match where Elche were crumbling defensively but vicious in attack. Half an hour in, they paid Flick's team a taste of their own medicine, breaking down the Catalan defense and allowing Álvaro to equalize. The home side's joy was short-lived, however, as, stung, Barça created ten clear-cut chances in just 15 minutes before halftime. One minute the ball hit the post, the next Peña made the save, the next it went wide. It was only a matter of time before Barça's second goal arrived, and it came after a blistering run by Frenkie de Jong. The Dutchman, sometimes a bit too subdued, had a blast in a match where he could run up and down the pitch with long dribbles, just like he did years ago at Ajax. And that's how he created the play in which Ferran Torres finally managed to beat Iñaki Peña. Sarabia looked angry. He knew he was playing with fire. Flick seemed angry too, since they had been too forgiving in the first half. Not only that. Raphinha felt a muscle strain and, just in case, Rashford came on in the second half of an entertaining match. A stage where Lamine Yamal was displaying all his charms. Now a cassock, now an electric dribble, now an impossible touch. The player from Rocafonda has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and he's revealing them on the pitch with his mischievous laugh. Barça's problem was that they hadn't put the game away. And Elche, from time to time, had a chance to equalize, while Flick brought on Bernal to bring order to the game and Lewandowski to score. They had to get the third goal, and with space to operate; the Pole had to be lethal. It was impossible for Barça to keep missing so many chances. And finally, the third goal of liberation came thanks to another moment of brilliance from Lamine Yamal, who saved a ball that seemed lost and was the architect of the move that Rashford finished off to finally break the home side's resistance. The job was done, the lead secured, and the pressure was on Real Madrid in their match. Football, always surprising, saw Barça win a game in which, strangely enough, they didn't have their best day in attack. Despite missing chances, they knew how to finish the job.