Barcelona’s attacking floodlights burned through Racing Santander on Wednesday night, with seven goals, a Raphinha hat-trick and another reminder that the Catalans are scoring at a startling pace this season.
Barcelona hit Racing Santander for seven as Raphinha moves clear
SEO Title: Barcelona 7-2 Racing Santander: Raphinha hat-trick sends Barca top of scoring charts
Meta Description: Raphinha struck three times as Barcelona beat Racing Santander 7-2 in La Liga, reaching 33 goals in seven matches ahead of Saturday’s Sevilla test.
Barcelona swept aside the promoted Cantabrian side 7-2 in La Liga, although Racing arrived with a heavily rotated, reserve-led selection that suggested they knew the scale of the challenge. Even so, the visitors found two goals against a Barcelona defence that otherwise spent the evening watching their forwards dismantle the contest.
João Cancelo opened the scoring after eight minutes, collecting Lamine Yamal’s pass before driving a 25-metre effort into the top corner. Raphinha then doubled the advantage from the penalty spot in the 25th minute, but Racing briefly found a response when Gueye scored on the half-hour.
Cancelo nearly produced the first two-goal match of his career, only for another long-range attempt to take a deflection and finish as an own goal in the 36th minute. Raphinha restored the gap before the interval with his second from open play in the 42nd minute.
Yamal endured a frustrating spell in front of goal. He missed a penalty shortly before half-time and saw an effort ruled out for offside in the 72nd minute, despite his influential role in the game. The winger had created Cancelo’s opener and later supplied Gabriel Jesus for the Brazilian’s first La Liga goal in the 79th minute.
Raphinha completed his treble with another penalty in the 67th minute, taking his league total to nine goals and moving ahead of Kylian Mbappé, who has seven. Karim Adeyemi was central to both spot-kicks, while he also missed chances of his own in the 19th and 85th minutes.
Racing’s Zabiri scored their second goal in the 65th minute, one of the few blemishes on Barcelona’s night. Another concern came at the interval, when goalkeeper Joan Garcia was forced off after hurting himself in a slip.
Yamal eventually got his reward in the 89th minute, taking advantage of an Adeyemi mistake to add the seventh. Barcelona have now scored 33 league goals across seven fixtures, an average of 4.7 per game, with a goal difference of plus 22. Sevilla, due to visit on Saturday at 21:00, have been warned.
