Barcelona begin LaLiga campaign at Elche

Agosto 21, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

By Graham Ruthven

Attacking uncertainty

There was no more ferocious attacking outfit in LaLiga last season than Barcelona who won the Spanish title by scoring an unmatched 95 goals in 38 games. They were a force of nature in the final third.

Since then, though, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres have both left the Camp Nou with Marcus Rashford returning to parent club Manchester United. Barca have lost three players who scored a combined 38 league goals for them last term.

Karim Adeyemi and Anthony Gordon have been signed in their place despite the fact neither player has been a consistent goalscorer previously in their respective careers. It’s not clear who will play as the centre forward for the Catalans.

The omens for Elche ahead of Sunday’s meeting aren’t positive. Indeed, they have never beaten Barcelona in 15 previous league encounters, only ever taking points off the Catalans once.

Last season, Elche finished just one point above the bottom three and the early indications are that they face another fight to stay in the Spanish top flight this term.

Even with so many questions over the forward line and where the goals will come from this season, Barca are firm favourites to start their LaLiga title defence on the front foot this weekend.

Key players

Marc Aguado scored an equaliser for Elche in their season opener away to Deportivo A Coruna last weekend with the 26-year-old expected to start once more in the centre of the pitch against Barca.

Austrian defender David Affengruber was also impressive in the first league game of the season against Depor. He will need to replicate this performance against the Spanish champions.

Rodri completed his £65m transfer to Barcelona earlier this week. The Spanish midfielder underwent minor back surgery after winning the World Cup and hasn’t had much time on the training pitch with his new team. Nonetheless, he could feature against Rodri.

Lamine Yamal is firmly established as Barca’s most important creative player and will be the Catalans’ brightest spark against Elche despite his recent struggles for full fitness.

Pau Cubarsí might have to make do with a place on the bench after a late return from the World Cup. This could push Eric García into central defence ahead of Joan García who didn’t play a single minute for Spain at the World Cup.

Team news

Yago Santiago and Adam Boayar are both working their way back to fitness ahead of Elche’s first home fixture of the season while attacker Grady Diangana is also recovering from a knee injury.

Frenkie de Jong is on the sidelines with a knee injury and is expected to miss a portion of the 2026/27 season. Roony Bardghji is also currently unavailable with a torn ACL.

Sunday’s match could come too early for Rodri to make his debut for Barcelona after joining earlier this week. Otherwise, Hansi Flick will have a fully fit and available squad to choose from.