Barcelona 7-2 Racing Santander: Raphinha hat-trick keeps dominant champions perfect

Raphinha’s hat-trick helped Barcelona continue their perfect start in LaLiga this season with a 7-2 thumping of Racing Santander at Camp Nou.

Hansi Flick’s defending champions made it six straight league wins on Wednesday, with a pair of remarkable Joao Cancelo finishes somewhat overshadowed by Raphinha’s treble that included two penalties.

Cancelo’s first stunner sent Barcelona into an eighth-minute lead. The full-back cut inside after Lamine Yamal’s diagonal pass and curled a gorgeous 20-yard strike past Julen Agirrezabala that kissed the crossbar before bouncing in.

Karim Adeyemi should have twice doubled Barca’s lead soon after, but the hosts made it 2-0 in the 25th minute when Raphinha won a penalty and slammed into the bottom-right corner following Pedro Felipe’s foul.

Racing halved the deficit five minutes later when Maguette Gueye lifted over Joan Garcia, but Cancelo restored Barca’s two-goal lead after fizzing another glorious long-range strike into the top-left corner.

Raphinha grabbed his second when taking in Dani Olmo’s cute pass and thrashing low past Agirrezabala’s left, before the Brazilian selflessly handed over penalty duties to Yamal after Felipe felled Adeyemi.

However, Yamal was denied by Agirrezabala when aiming for the bottom-right corner on the stroke of half-time, before the Spain winger was denied by the post after the interval.

Raphinha converted another penalty into the same corner as his first after Iker Luque fouled Adeyemi, responding just two minutes after Yassir Zabiri had pulled one back from half-time substitute Wojciech Szczesny’s mistake in possession.

Yamal was again frustrated, this time by an offside flag ruling out his finish, but then teed up Gabriel Jesus, who picked out the top-right corner with 11 minutes remaining.

And Yamal finally got his goal in the 89th minute when Adeyemi stalled over a cutback before picking out his teammate, whose first-time finish capped another outstanding performance from the champions.

Perfect six for blistering Barca

This win certainly brings positive omens for Barca, who have won their opening six games of a LaLiga season for the sixth time this century.

On four of the previous five occasions they have opened with six league wins, Barca have ended the campaign as champions, barring the 2013-14 season when they finished second.

The question seems to be can anyone stop Barca’s free-scoring attack? Flick’s side have hammered in a competition-leading 28 goals – 11 more than any other side (Real Madrid, 17).

Central to that success has been Raphinha, who has answered Flick's call to play as a false nine with a remarkable nine goals and three assists in six league games this campaign.

But no team can account for two ridiculous Cancelo goals. His two long-range strikes were worth just 0.047 expected goals (xG), highlighting the quality of both finishes.

Cancelo’s eye-catching double may have belied the underlying data, but there was no doubt about this win for Barca, who accumulated a massive 6.65 expected goals (xG) to the visitors’ 1.86.

And Flick may have been relieved Yamal got his goal in the end; the Spanish international has now scored in four straight LaLiga games (seven in total) for the first time in his career.

There were few positives for Racing, but Zabiri now has six goals in as many LaLiga games, and his form will be crucial if they are to avoid an immediate return back to the Segunda Division.