Sevilla 1-3 Barcelona: Another Raphinha hat-trick extends perfect start to title defence

Raphinha scored his second hat-trick in as many games as Barcelona defeated Sevilla 3-1 at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Youssouf Fofana gave Sevilla the lead early on, but captain Raphinha led the comeback for Barca, who recorded their seventh consecutive victory to start their LaLiga title defence.

Barca threatened to take an early lead when Lamine Yamal cut inside onto his left and sent a curler crashing against the left post, though it was a reprieve Sevilla made the most of as Fofana got in front of Pau Cubarsi to head in from Felix Correia's cross in the 19th minute.

However, the visitors were level just three minutes later as Raphinha took in a pass from Andreas Christensen, chopped past Arouna Sangante and curled into the bottom-right corner.

Sevilla refused to let Barca gain control, as many have this season, with Robbie Ure flashing a volley narrowly wide before Correia's first-time effort also went inches wide of the right post.

Nevertheless, Barca's free-scoring start to the season continued as Raphinha headed in from Yamal's cross seven minutes into the second half, while the Brazilian also hit the woodwork directly from a corner.

He would complete his perfect hat-trick in the 69th minute, dinking over Odysseas Vlachodimos after being slipped through by Yamal, and it proved too much to come back from for Sevilla.

Both Dani Olmo and Karim Adeyemi looked to inflict further pain as they tested Vlachodimos in the closing stages, but the Greek goalkeeper was equal to both of their efforts.

Raphinha-Yamal double act strikes again for Barca

Remarkably, this is just the second time this season Barca have scored fewer than four goals in a match, but it was still an impressive victory as they won the expected goals (xG) battle 3.26 to 0.45.

And it was the formidable duo of Raphinha and Yamal who led the way. Yamal led the match in shots (five), chances created (six) and passes in the final third (27), while Raphinha completed 100% of his dribbles (2/2) and won all four of his duels to go along with his three goals.

Only one player has scored more goals after the first seven matches of his team's season in the competition in the 21st century than Raphinha this term (12): Cristiano Ronaldo in 2014-15 (13), while he is the second Barcelona player to score a perfect hat-trick in LaLiga in the last 20 years.

Yamal, meanwhile, has recorded 51 assists in 159 matches with Barca across all competitions and is the youngest LaLiga player to reach 50 assists since the 2013-14 season (19 years and 68 days).

Hansi Flick will have plenty to be pleased about heading into the international break, though one area of concern will be the injury to Andres Christensen midway through the second half.