Raphinha's Hat-Trick Leads Barcelona to Victory Over Sevilla
At the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Barcelona were punched in the mouth early. They barely flinched.
Youssouf Fofana stunned the league leaders in the 19th minute, finishing for Sevilla to ignite the home crowd and briefly crack open a contest that had looked tilted Barça’s way from the opening whistle. For a few minutes, the stadium believed.
It didn’t last.
Three minutes after falling behind, Barcelona were level. Andreas Christensen stepped out from the back and split Sevilla with a sharp, vertical pass. Raphinha timed his run, took it in stride and buried the chance. One pass, one touch, one ruthless finish. The noise in the Sánchez Pizjuán dropped a level.
From there, the game belonged to Hansi Flick’s team.
Raphinha, the unlikely No 9
Barcelona lost Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres in the summer and were forced to redraw the attacking map. The solution has been as simple as it is devastating: put Raphinha through the middle and let him live in the box.
He is thriving.
The Brazilian didn’t just drag Barça back into the match; he ripped it away from Sevilla completely. Two more goals after the break completed his hat-trick and turned a tricky away day into a 3-1 procession. Every time Barcelona attacked, he appeared where a classic centre-forward should be – on the shoulder of the last defender, in the six-yard box, darting between centre-backs.
Those three goals push him to 12 in seven league games this season. Across all competitions, the numbers are even more brutal: 14 goals and three assists in just eight matches.
And there’s a streak developing. This was his second hat-trick in 72 hours, after he ran riot in a 7-2 demolition of Racing in the previous round. Two trebles in three days is the kind of form that turns a positional experiment into a permanent reshuffle.
Flick’s machine: flair up front, steel at the back
Raphinha will own the headlines, but Barcelona’s control after the early setback told its own story. Once they equalised, they suffocated Sevilla. Possession swung heavily in their favour, the ball moving with a calm authority that slowly drained belief from the hosts.
The only real concern for Flick came in the second half, when Christensen limped off with a thigh issue. It could have rattled a backline still bedding in new pieces. It didn’t.
Dominik Livakovic, making his debut in goal, looked like he had been there for months. He read Sevilla’s efforts cleanly, handled crosses with assurance and got behind the home side’s more dangerous efforts without fuss. The Croatian’s calm presence knitted neatly into a defence marshalled by Pau Cubarsí and Eric García, who shut down clear chances after the opening goal and kept Sevilla mostly at arm’s length.
At the other end, Lamine Yamal turned the right flank into his own stage. The teenager repeatedly drove at Odysseas Vlachodimos, forcing the Sevilla keeper into action and stretching the backline until it snapped. Yamal finished with two assists for Raphinha, but that barely covers his impact; every surge down the wing felt like the start of another storm.
Sevilla, chasing shadows for long stretches, simply couldn’t live with the tempo or the variety of Barcelona’s attacks as the minutes ticked by.
Top of the table, eyes on what’s next
The comeback win keeps Barcelona’s La Liga record perfect and their grip on top spot firm, now sitting on 21 points and playing like a side that expects to stay there. The performance in Seville had the hallmarks of a serious title contender: recovery from an early blow, control in hostile territory, and a forward in unstoppable form.
Flick now turns to the medical reports on Christensen and the training ground details that will shape the next phase of the season. Getafe arrive on October 10 as the next domestic hurdle, before the spotlight swings to Europe and a high-stakes Champions League clash with Galatasaray three days later.
If Raphinha keeps scoring like this and the spine behind him holds, the real question isn’t whether Barcelona can stay top. It’s who, exactly, is going to knock them off.
