FC Barcelona 7-2 Racing Santander: The perfect storm
We are running out of superlatives to describe just how brilliant FC Barcelona have been this season. And they are showing no signs of letting up. This Wednesday’s performance against Racing Santander may have been the best yet.
Unperturbed by the torrential downpour of rain, from start to finish they were all over the Cantabrians. Barely a minute went by without some kind of chance on goal, and no fewer seven of them ended up in the net.
For the first time ever, Barça have won all seven of their opening encounters in a campaign, scoring a simply sublime 33 goals in the process.
The win also means they remain top of the Liga table with a perfect six wins out of six. What more could we ask for? It’s been the most perfect start to a Barça season ever!
Cancelo thunderbolts
The rain was indeed lashing down on Spotify Camp Nou, and it wasn’t long before it was also raining goals in the Racing Santander net.
The three points looked safe long before the half-time whistle blew. João Cancelo was the hero of two of the goals, both of which were unleashed from outside the area.
The first bounded in off the crossbar after just eight minutes, utterly unstoppable for visiting keeper Julen Agirrezabala, and as if just to show that it had been no fluke, the Portuguese full-back did it again on 36 minutes. This time the ball took a small deflection off Racing’s Asier Villalibre and as a result seems to have gone down officially as an own goal.
Flying ahead
In between those two spectacular efforts there were goals at both ends of the pitch.
Raphinha continued his stunning start to the season with his seventh goal of the Liga campaign. The first came from the penalty spot after he’d been caught from behind in the area. By the time he was substituted he’d taken his Liga tally up to nine. In just six games!
The Cantabrians made a timid attempt to get back into the game when Maguette Gueye pulled a goal back with practically their only real attack of the first half, but Cancelo’s ‘second’ would promptly restore the two-goal cushion and Raphinha made it 4-1 with a clinical finish off a Dani Olmo assist.
It could even have been five before the break after Karim Adeyemi was brought down in the area, but Agirrezabala was able to get a hand to Lamine Yamal’s spot kick. It didn’t look like it was going to be Lamine’s day. Later in the game, he also had a fabulous solo goal disallowed for offside. But he’d eventually get on the scoresheet too.
Raphinha hat-trick
Joan García looked to have picked up a freak injury, hopefully nothing too serious, and he was replaced by Wojciech Szczęsny for the second half. The Polish stopper didn’t get off to the best of starts when his mistake allowed Racing’s in-form striker Yassir Zabiri to nab his sixth goal of the season but he'd later make amends with a fine block to deny Racing a third.
Again, any thoughts the visitors had of a comeback were quickly dispelled when Adeyemi was on the receiving end of another penalty and Raphinha got the job done from the spot to claim his hat-trick and make it 5-2.
And still there’s more!
Against Feyenoord, Gabriel Jesus needed just two minutes to score his first goal for Barça, and the Brazilian repeated the supersub role tonight, coming on to rifle home goal number six.
The rain was still pounding down from the heavens, but it could do nothing to dampen the blaugrana party. With regular time drawing to a close, Adeyemi broke down the right on the most dazzling of runs, hurdling defenders before unselfishly setting up Lamine Yamal for goal number seven!
After that breathtaking display, the next challenge is a trip to Sevilla on Saturday at 9pm CEST.