Barcelona Continues Perfect Start with Raphinha's Hat-Trick
Barcelona’s perfect start rolls on, and Rodri is enjoying every second of it.
At Montjuïc on Saturday, Sevilla landed the first punch. They went ahead, silencing the home crowd and briefly shaking a Barça side that has looked ruthless in the opening weeks of the season. The response was brutal. Raphinha took over, tore through Sevilla’s back line and walked away with the match ball, his hat-trick turning a scare into a 3-1 win and another three points.
In the mixed zone afterward, Rodri’s smile said as much as his words. The midfielder, one of the early pillars of Hansi Flick’s new-look Barcelona, didn’t dwell on the early setback or his own influence. He went straight to the teammates who, in his eyes, tilted the game.
“For me, today Rapha was outstanding, Lamine was also very good, and Adeyemi, I really liked how he came on in the second half,” he said, picking out the Brazilian match-winner, the electric youngster Lamine and the lively substitute Adeyemi as the night’s standouts.
Sevilla’s opener had threatened to derail Barça’s rhythm. Raphinha’s response killed that idea quickly. His first goal settled nerves, his second flipped the scoreboard, and the third underlined why Flick is building so much of his attack around the winger’s aggression and timing. Every time Sevilla thought they had the wide areas covered, Raphinha found another gap.
The energy around this Barcelona side is different, and Rodri made it clear the players do not intend to let it fade.
“We’re not going to lose our rhythm, we’re going to keep competing. We need to keep in mind that these are important matches and come back in the best possible shape,” the Spain international insisted, already looking beyond the glow of another victory.
The night wasn’t all positive. Andreas Christensen’s injury forced an early defensive reshuffle, a moment that could have unsettled a back line already working hard to contain Sevilla’s breaks. Instead, Gerard Martín stepped in and, in Rodri’s eyes, rose to the occasion.
“Gerard Martín has been sensational. Such a shame about Christensen’s injury,” Rodri said, offering both praise and a reminder of the cost of the win.
If Rodri was busy handing out compliments, his coach was just as quick to send some back his way. Flick, still in the early stages of imposing his ideas, pointed to the midfielder as the metronome and anchor of this new Barça.
“Rodri is a great player, both with and without the ball. He controls everything and gives us composure in our positional play. I think he connects well with Pedri and the center-backs. Overall, I think we can be happy with what we did,” the German coach said, underlining just how central Rodri has become to the structure and calm of the team.
That connection with Pedri and the defenders has given Barcelona a spine they have sometimes lacked in recent seasons. When Sevilla pushed, Rodri dropped in, took the ball under pressure, and reset the tempo. When Barça surged forward, he was the one stitching the moves together, making sure Raphinha, Lamine and Adeyemi received the ball where they could hurt.
Now comes a pause. After a sensational start, Barcelona step away for a short break, the calendar handing them a chance to breathe, heal and sharpen. They return on October 10th against Getafe, with a perfect record to protect and a growing sense that this early-season form might be more than just a hot streak.
