Elche was down to 10 men in the 14th minute as Verdu received a red card after he took down Lewandowski to stop a clear goal-scoring opportunity for Barcelona.
It took Barcelona 34 minutes to break the deadlock after Lewandowski finished a cross from Balde.
Depay quickly made it 2-0 soon as he used his body and strength to hold off the defender before turning and scoring with his weaker foot.
Pedri thought he made it 3-0 when scoring a rebound from Lewandowski’s shot, but he was in an offside position, and VAR ruled the goal out.
Lewandowski then scored his eighth league goal of the season from close range to make it 3-0 quickly after the restart.
Depay, Araujo, and Raphinha all had good chances to score but couldn’t find their way past Badia in goal.
Starting lineup:
Barcelona (4-3-3): Marc-Andre ter Stegen;
Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Eric Garcia, Alejandro Balde;
Franck Kessie, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri;
Ousmane Dembele, Robert Lewandowski, Memphis Depay.
Elche (4-3-3): Edgar Badia;
Helibelton Palacios, Gonzalo Verdu, Pedro Bigas, Carlos Clerc;
Raul Guti, John Donald, Gerard Gumbau;
Tete Morente, Lucas Boye, Fidel.
Goals:
GOAL!!!!! 1-0 LEWANDOWSKI! Lewandowski breaks the deadlock for Barcelona as he finishes a cross from Balde home. Depay almost scores the chance himself but misses the ball, but the Polish striker is there to rescue the chance.
GOALLL!!!!!! 2-0 DEPAY! Depay doubles Barcelona’s lead with a brilliant finish past Badia. Balde passes to Depay, who has his back to the defender. He quickly turns his body away from his man and finishes high into the goal with his left foot.
GOALLL!!!! 3-0 LEWANDOWSKI! Lewandowski gets his second goal of the game with an easy finish to the far post. The ball is loose after a cross from Dembele and Depay finds his striker with a clever pass.
So, what’s next?
Barcelona moves to the top of the LaLiga standings, with Real Madrid playing on Sunday, while Elche remains in 20th.
Xavi’s side will travel to Mallorca for their next game after the international break, while Elche faces Rayo Vallecano on the 3rd of October.
