Barcelona won their opening game in La Liga with a thumping 5-0 win over Elche, as Anthony Gordon made the perfect impression in the Catalan club’s first match of the season after providing a couple of assists within five minutes.
After signing from Newcastle in the summer, the Englishman made his first appearance on Friday and came in as a substitute for Lamine Yamal in the 65th minute.
Instant Impact
He delivered the first assist after just two minutes of being on the pitch, by putting the captain Raphinha in to score.
On the left wing, Gordon was involved in the delivery of the second goal in just four minutes. After racing towards goal, he squared it to Fermin Lopez to finish easily in an empty goal, taking the lead 4-0.
The player had delivered just two assists for Newcastle throughout 26 games in the 2025-26 Premier League campaign but he was their top scorer with 17 goals.
With this win, Hansi Flick’s team started the title defence on the right foot as their opponents Real Madrid also won their first match at Espanyol on Saturday.
fam. pic.twitter.com/xinK7K7faM
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 23, 2026
Attack Fires Without Lewandowski
Barcelona opened the scoring in 14 minutes as Raphinha was brought down inside the box by Elche’s Victor Chust. The Brazil winger beat the dive of the Elche goalkeeper Matias Dituro from the penalty spot.
Elche managed to trouble the Barcelona defense in the first half but they couldn’t score and fell further behind as Karim Adeyemi scored the second goal in the last minute of the first half.
The German winger, making his first appearance for Barca after joining from Borussia Dortmund, was assisted by Raphinha and slotted past Dituro for his first goal for the Blaugrana.
The goal, however, came only minutes after losing midfielder Gavi due to an injury with Pedri coming on to replace him.
Yamal, who wasted the opportunity in the early minutes, made way for Gordon in the second half. It was the England international that assisted two goals for Barca and then Lopez put the finishing touch to the game in the 79th minute.
Barcelona will play their next game against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday, 27 August (20:00 BST).
