Soccer Football - LaLiga - Elche v FC Barcelona - Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero, Elche, Spain - January 31, 2026 FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal in action with Elche's John Donald REUTERS/Pablo Morano
ELCHE, Spain, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Lamine Yamal scored one goal and created another as Barcelona extended their lead at the top of LaLiga with a 3-1 victory over Elche on Saturday.
Barcelona moved to 55 points from 22 matches, four ahead of Real Madrid, who have a game in hand. Elche remained in 12th place with 24 points from 22 games.
Yamal opened the scoring for the visitors before Alvaro Rodriguez equalised for Elche in an end-to-end first half.
Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford struck to complete the win, sparing the blushes of wasteful Barca who had 30 efforts on goal in the match.
"We got three more points. We continue to grow as a team. We haven't reached our peak yet," Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong said.
"We usually have people who finish well. There are times when they fail. The important thing is that we have them (chances)."
Barcelona took the lead inside six minutes when Dani Olmo played Yamal through on goal and the 18-year-old rounded goalkeeper Inaki Pena to score his 13th goal of the season in all competitions.
Olmo struck a shot against the crossbar midway through the first half, and within a minute Elche were level.
German Valera slipped former Real Madrid forward Rodriguez in behind the Barcelona defence and he raced clear to score.
The visitors should have retaken the lead when Torres struck the crossbar again from six yards out with a poor miss. The ball rebounded back to him and he then steered it against the post in a comical sequence of play.
Torres did get his goal on 40 minutes when De Jong found space in the box and rather than shoot himself, laid the ball back for the forward to fire into the roof of the net from 15 yards.
It should have been 3-1 minutes later when Fermin Lopez somehow skied the ball over the crossbar from six yards with the goal gaping.
Barcelona continued to create chances in the second half with substitute Rashford guilty of a poor miss when he put his shot wide with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Rashford did get his goal on 72 minutes, however, when Yamal's low cross was not cleared by the Elche defence, allowing the England forward to blast the ball into the roof of the net from close range.
"Barca attack very well," Rodriguez said. "They have very good players and it wasn't to be. We will continue working to do better."
(Reporting by Nick Said, editing by Ed Osmond)
