Barcelona climb top thanks to Lewandowski's goals and Elche's early red card

Barcelona bounced back from their midweek disappointment in Munich by comfortably swatting Elche aside on Saturday afternoon, winning 3-0 after the visitors went down to 10 men in the opening moments of the game.

Robert Lewandowski was the star man again with two more goals, while he was also involved in the key moment of the match as he was brought down as the last man by Gonzalo Verdu in the 13th minute, earning the Elche man an early dismissal.

Elche were furious, especially because they felt Franck Kessie should have been shown a second yellow later in the first half.

It was also frustrating for the visitors that both of Barcelona's first two goals were only very narrowly onside.

With the first, Lewandowski slid in to turn in a good low cross from Alejandro Balde, before the young left-back then played it in to Memphis Depay, with the Dutchman turning his marker and firing a ferocious shot past Edgar Badia.

Barcelona picked up where they'd left off after the break, with Lewandowski scoring just a few minutes into the second half, finishing well after the ball came to him following some ricochets in the penalty area.

From there, Barcelona could take their feet off the gas, with Xavi even making a triple substitution on the hour mark.

One of those substitutes was Raphinha and he came close, before Ronald Araujo almost turned in a spectacular volley at a late corner.

In the end, it finished 3-0, meaning the Catalan club sit top of LaLiga Santander for the time being, ahead of the Madrid derby on Sunday.