It was less a contest than a coronation. Barcelona arrived at the Estadio Martinez Valero looking for their first three points of the season and left with a statement written in five clean strokes, dismantling Elche 0-5 with a display of pace, precision and merciless finishing. By the end the home crowd had fallen silent, their side simply overrun by a visitor moving at a wholly different speed.

Raphinha was the architect and the executioner, converting an early penalty, laying on the second and then helping himself to a third. Fermin Lopez arrived late to bury the contest with two goals in eight minutes, and Karim Adeyemi added the gloss on the stroke of half-time. Every time Barcelona surged forward, they seemed to score. Elche, by contrast, could not lay a glove on them.

This was the sort of afternoon that reframes a season before it has properly begun. Barcelona had drawn a blank in expectation before this trip; now they have a goal difference of plus five and the swagger of a side that has found its range. Elche, meanwhile, were left to count the cost of a defence that buckled from the fourteenth minute and never recovered its shape.

Raphinha sets the tone

The tone was set early and set hard. In the fourteenth minute Barcelona won a penalty and Raphinha stepped up without fuss, sending a left-footed strike into the bottom right corner. It was a finish of ice-cold conviction, the kind that tells a stadium the afternoon may not be theirs.

From there Barcelona hunted a second with relish. It came in the third minute of first-half stoppage time, and it came on the break, Raphinha springing the counter and finding Adeyemi in the centre of the box. The German swept a right-footed shot straight through the middle of the goal, and Elche trudged off two down and thoroughly beaten before the interval whistle had even settled.

There was a clinical rhythm to it all. Barcelona did not need to dominate possession for long stretches; they needed only to strike when the opening appeared, and each time it did they punished it. Elche's defenders were left chasing shadows, dragged out of position by movement they could neither track nor match.

The floodgates open

If the first half was a warning, the second was an execution. On sixty-seven minutes Anthony Gordon slid a pass into Raphinha, who again found the bottom right corner with his left foot for his second of the afternoon. Three-nil, and the game was long past saving for the hosts.

Gordon was not finished as a provider. Four minutes later he teed up Fermin Lopez, who lashed a right-footed effort into the centre of the goal to make it four. The substitutes and support cast were now getting in on the act, Barcelona's threat coming from every angle and every boot.

The fifth arrived on seventy-nine minutes, and it belonged again to Fermin Lopez. This time Xavi Espart was the creator, and Fermin finished coolly with his left foot, straight down the middle once more. Two goals, two feet, a young forward's afternoon complete. Elche had no answer to any of it.

What it means

For Barcelona, this is the perfect springboard. They climb to fourth on three points, having scored five without reply in a single afternoon, and the manner of the win matters as much as the margin. A team that shares its goals around — five different scorers across the game, if you count the assists as freely as the finishes — is a difficult thing to plan against.

The numbers tell their own story. Barcelona now boast a goal difference of plus five from their opening exchanges, and they did it away from home against opponents who could not contain them for even a quarter of an hour. Raphinha's brace and Fermin Lopez's late double will grab the headlines, but the fluency of the whole was the real message.

There is early-season caution to be observed, of course, with a full campaign still to unfold. But afternoons like this build belief, and belief has a way of compounding. Barcelona have found their attacking pitch, and rivals will have noted just how sharp the edges were.

Elche left reeling

For Elche the picture could scarcely be bleaker. They sit fifteenth on a single point, having now conceded six goals in their opening two matches while scoring just once. This was a chastening lesson in the gulf that separates a side finding its feet from one already in full stride.

The scoreline flatters no one in claret and white. Elche were cut open too easily, on the counter and in open play alike, and their inability to disrupt Barcelona's rhythm left them exposed for ninety minutes. There was no shortage of effort, but effort without organisation against a side of this quality is a recipe for exactly the kind of rout that unfolded here.

The task now is recovery, and quickly. A single point from two games is no cause for panic in isolation, but a goal difference of minus five so early demands a response. Elche must tighten up, regroup and find the resilience that deserted them entirely on this humbling Sunday afternoon.