A profligate Barcelona side managed to eke out a 2-1 win against Elche at Estadio Martínez Valero to move into third place of La Liga table.
Second-half goals from substitutes Ferran Torres and Mephis Depay provided an antidote to Fidel Chaves’s strike in the opening half to give the Catalans a hard-fought win.
The Blaugrana wasted a number of opportunities to take the lead in the contest. The game’s first real chance fell to Jordi Alba whose volley drew an easy save from Édgar Badía. Frenkie de Jong then wasted his side’s best chance of the game in the 26th minute when the Dutchman shot straight at Diego González with Elche’s goalkeeper not in the picture.
Barcelona were made to pay almost immediately but Tete Morente fired his shot high over the bar from a pass that fell perfectly for him.
De Jong failed to make amends for his miss in the 37th minute when his effort was parried by Édgar Badía in one-on-one.
Elche did not spare the mistake this time and took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Fidel Chaves, who intercepted a poor pass from Pedri before racing into the box and striking home.
Xavi Hernandez introduced Torres at half-time and the move paid dividends. The Spanish forward netted an equalizer on the hour mark, poking in from inside the six-yard box.
Barcelona, Elche played a frantic 20 minutes next with both teams creating scoring opportunities only to be denied by goalkeepers Marc Andre ter Stegen and Edgar Badia.
Ferran Torres managed to miss a number of golden chances in front of the goal as a draw seemed to be an inevitable conclusion.
Barca were lucky to be awarded a penalty in the 84th minute following a handball by Antonio Barragan. Referee Mario Melero Lopez consulted with the VAR before pointing to the spot and Depay rifled the subsequent kick into the roof of the net.
The VAR was put to work twice more after that, as Elche were controversially denied two penalties following handball appeals against Barca players.
Having fallen as low as ninth back in November under Ronald Koeman, Xavi Hernandez’s revitalized Barca have climbed into LaLiga’s top three with 48 points, leapfrogging Betis in third place.
