A hat-trick from Raphinha powered Hansi Flick’s rampant Barcelona to an emphatic 7-2 victory over Racing Santander as they moved three points clear at the top of La Liga.
Barca made light work of some awful weather to secure a sixth consecutive league victory, restoring a cushion over arch-rivals Real Madrid at the summit.
The hosts surged ahead after just eight minutes with Joao Cancelo’s thunderous long-range strike off the underside of the crossbar.
The on-fire Raphinha doubled the advantage from the spot on 25 minutes after Pedro Felipe’s foul inside the box. Though Maguette Gueye offered Racing a brief lifeline with a composed dink over Joan Garcia, Flick’s side quickly slammed the door shut.
Cancelo thought he had added his second from distance shortly after, before it was credited as an own goal, with Dani Olmo then picking out Raphinha to lash home a clinical fourth before the break.
Santander keeper Julen Agirrezabala managed to parry away Lamine Yamal’s penalty in first-half stoppage time, but Racing remained overwhelmed by Barca’s unrelenting pressure.
Barca introduced Wojciech Szczesny at the interval for the injured Garcia, and the Polish goalkeeper suffered an immediate lapse, dispossessed inside his own area by Yassir Zabiri to make it 4-2.
The resistance proved fleeting, however. Karim Adeyemi earned Barca’s third penalty of the night on 67 minutes, allowing Raphinha to dispatch his treble into the bottom corner before the hosts added a sixth to rubber-stamp the rout through Gabriel Jesus.
And there was still time for Lamal to make up for his penalty miss as he grabbed the seventh.
With 28 goals now scored across their opening six fixtures, Flick’s formidable outfit march into Saturday’s trip to Sevilla with complete authority.
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