A hat-trick from Raphinha powered Hansi Flick’s rampant Barcelona to an emphatic 7-2 victory over Racing Santander as they moved three factors clear on the high of La Liga.
Barca made gentle work of some terrible climate to safe a sixth consecutive league victory, restoring a cushion over arch-rivals Actual Madrid on the summit.
The hosts surged forward after simply eight minutes with Joao Cancelo’s thunderous long-range strike off the underside of the crossbar.
The on-fire Raphinha doubled the benefit from the spot on 25 minutes after Pedro Felipe’s foul contained in the field. Although Maguette Gueye provided Racing a quick lifeline with a composed dink over Joan Garcia, Flick’s facet shortly slammed the door shut.
Cancelo thought he had added his second from distance shortly after, earlier than it was credited as an personal objective, with Dani Olmo then choosing out Raphinha to lash house a medical fourth earlier than the break.
Santander keeper Julen Agirrezabala managed to parry away Lamine Yamal’s penalty in first-half stoppage time, however Racing remained overwhelmed by Barca’s unrelenting strain.
Barca launched Wojciech Szczesny on the interval for the injured Garcia, and the Polish goalkeeper suffered a direct lapse, dispossessed inside his personal space by Yassir Zabiri to make it 4-2.
The resistance proved fleeting, nevertheless. Karim Adeyemi earned Barca’s third penalty of the night time on 67 minutes, permitting Raphinha to dispatch his treble into the underside nook earlier than the hosts added a sixth to rubber-stamp the rout by way of Gabriel Jesus.
And there was nonetheless time for Lamal to make up for his penalty miss as he grabbed the seventh.
With 28 targets now scored throughout their opening six fixtures, Flick’s formidable outfit march into Saturday’s journey to Sevilla with full authority.
