Elche hosted Barcelona in the second leg of the Copa Del Rey with basically pride at stake following a 5-0 rout of them at the Camp Nou last week. For Barcelona, 7 players from the academy started for the side and 4 on the bench as Luis Enrique has called up six players from the B team, including teenage Croatia midfielder Alen Halilovic, resting the main big stars of the club.
The first half saw Barcelona take complete control of the game, even with some Elche chances. It didn't take long for Barcelona to get comfortable, however. In the 20th minute, Adriano was fouled a few yards from the box and a tremendous costless-kick through Jeremy Mathieu into the right corner makes it impossible for Manu Moreno to stop and gave the Frenchman his first competitive goal for the club as Barcelona took the lead. 20 minutes later, the ball was played to Sergi Roberto after a left-footed drive from the edge of the box into the left corner to double the lead. 2 minutes later, Munir is fouled inside the area and is awarded a penalty, leaving Pedro to net from the spot and does so making it 3-0 as halftime approached.
In the second half, it was the same from Barcelona with few chances by Elche as well, including some good saves and goalkeeping for the German Marc-André ter Stegen. In the 62nd minute, Highly-rated teenager Alen Halilovic has been brought on to make his debut for Barcelona's first team. In the last minute of the match, Douglas, who was brought on with Halilovic in the same minute, crosses the ball to Adriano as he headed in the goal to complete the rout and secured qualification to the Copa Del Rey quarterfinals with a 4-0 victory and a 9-0 aggregate.
Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid (who knocked out rivals and defending champions Real Madrid) in the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey where they will host the first leg next Wednesday but not before a league match against Deportivo La Coruña on Sunday, while Elche will face Levante on the same day.