Barcelona Maintain Perfect La Liga Record with Raphinha's Hat-Trick
Barcelona were forced to dig deep in Seville, but they left the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan with their perfect La Liga record intact and a new hero leading the line.
Hansi Flick’s side came from behind to beat Sevilla 3-1, driven by a ruthless hat-trick from Raphinha, who is suddenly looking every inch a number nine.
Sevilla strike first, Raphinha answers
Barcelona started loose, and Sevilla pounced.
In the 19th minute, Youssouf Fofana punished them. The midfielder arrived to finish and give the home crowd exactly what they wanted: a lead and a sense that Barça’s early-season stride might finally be checked.
That idea lasted three minutes.
Andreas Christensen split Sevilla open with a precise pass, and Raphinha, operating centrally again, did the rest. One touch, one finish, 1-1. The response was instant, the message clear: this Barcelona side will not fold easily.
The Brazilian, repurposed as a striker after the summer departures of Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, carried a different kind of menace. He drifted, he pressed, he attacked space. Sevilla never really worked him out.
Raphinha’s new role, same ruthless edge
If the first half showed Barcelona’s sloppiness, the second underlined their edge.
After the break, the game tilted. Lamine Yamal, once more, became the spark. Twice he provided the service; twice Raphinha applied the finish. The understanding between the teenage winger and the reinvented centre-forward shredded Sevilla’s resistance.
Raphinha’s second and third goals completed his second hat-trick in 72 hours and lifted his tally to 14 goals in all competitions this season. Those are centre-forward numbers, and he is delivering them while still looking like a winger who has simply moved his zone of destruction closer to goal.
Sevilla, squeezed and frustrated, found little joy against Pau Cubarsi and Eric Garcia. The Barcelona centre-backs tightened up after the interval, shut down space, and with debutant goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic calm behind them, the hosts were starved of clear chances.
Seven league wins from seven. Top of La Liga. But the story of the night was not just the scoreline.
Livakovic over Szczesny: a call made on instinct
The first surprise arrived before a ball was kicked.
Flick named Livakovic in goal, leaving Wojciech Szczesny on the bench, despite previously suggesting the Pole was his second-choice option. It looked like a change of plan. Flick insisted it was something else entirely.
"As you know, sometimes it’s not only about analysing everything. Sometimes it’s also about the feeling," he said afterwards via SPORT. "I think my feeling today was like this, so I spoke with the coaches and then we made this decision."
It was instinct over spreadsheets, gut over data.
"It doesn’t mean that we analysed it and decided that we don’t believe in Szczesny or anything like that," Flick continued. "But for me, today, I think this was the right decision."
Livakovic justified the call with a composed, authoritative debut. He handled Sevilla’s pressure, dealt cleanly with what came his way, and gave his defence the security they needed to reset after that shaky opening spell.
Still, Flick was clear: nothing is fixed.
"He was good. But in the end, it’s a decision I made, you know," he said. "Sometimes you see a player and you feel that this player might perhaps be the first option in this position, and you make a different decision. That’s what happened. It’s not such a big thing. This decision is only for this match."
The hardest part of the job
If the football looks fluid, the management behind it is anything but simple.
Barcelona sit top of La Liga with 21 points from seven matches, yet Flick admitted that the most demanding part of his work right now is not tactics or rotations. It’s the human side.
"In the end, to be honest with you, for me this is the hardest thing at the moment," he said. "I know everyone can be happy because we have enormous quality in the squad. But for me it’s not easy."
He only had to glance at his bench to feel it.
"When I look at the bench and see that Gavi won’t play, Xavi [Espart] can’t play, [Jules] Kounde can’t play, Szczesny can’t play, it’s not easy," Flick admitted.
He is close to his players, he insisted, and that only sharpens the edge of every decision.
"It’s not easy for me either because I’m close to everyone, I’m with everyone, and still I have to make these decisions. In the end, that’s how it is. I’m always thinking about the team. There is nothing personal. It’s about the team. That’s why we made this decision. In the end, yes, that’s my job. But it’s not easy at the moment."
On nights like this, though, the calls pay off. Livakovic delivers on debut. Raphinha explodes as a number nine. Yamal creates, Cubarsi and Garcia lock things down, and Barcelona walk away with another three points.
Seven games, seven wins. A coach trusting his instincts. A winger reborn as a striker. How long can they keep this balance between brutal competition inside the squad and relentless control of the league table?
