FC Barcelona is in impressive form. The Blaugrana achieved nine wins in ten league games. Hansi Flick’s team has only suffered one defeat against Osasuna so far. The goal difference of 33:10 also speaks volumes. Barça is also back on track in the Champions League after their 4-1 win over Bayern. At the start, the team lost to AS Monaco after an early sending off. But since then things have been going well for Barça in the premier class. The Young Boys Bern celebrated a clear 5-0 victory before banishing the long-standing “Bayern bogeyman” on Wednesday evening.
One player has particularly stood out in recent games: Raphinha. In his 100th competitive game, the Brazilian was the outstanding figure on Wednesday evening. Not only did the 27-year-old serve as captain, he also scored three times. No other Barça player had ever achieved this against Bayern – whether Neymar, Suarez or Messi. “I’ve been dreaming of evenings like this since I came to Barça,” Raphinha proudly told the media after the game Fabrizio Romano reported.
But it’s not just in the Champions League that Raphinha is currently proving his goalscoring qualities. Raphinha has already scored nine goals in 13 games this season. In the last two seasons there were only ten goals in total. Raphinha has made a developmental leap that is impressive. And this despite the fact that in the past the Brazilian was often considered a candidate for sale when Barça’s financial difficulties became too great. In a fan vote in the summer, 60 percent voted in favor of selling Raphinha kicker reported.
But one person saw the potential in the winger to become one of the most important top performers in the summer: Hansi Flick. The new Barça coach made it clear shortly after taking office that he was planning to work with Raphinha.
“Raphinha is a fantastic footballer, he does a lot of things right,” the 59-year-old said at the time, surprising many media and fans with these statements. After the Brazilian’s gala performance against Bayern, Flick praised his accurate striker highly. “I have never had a player like Raphinha in any of my teams. He gives everything and leaves his heart on the pitch, with and without the ball. He is very good, he always starts the pressing and finishes our chances”enthused the German Barca coach.
For Raphinha, this was said to be just the beginning. The Brazilian wants to achieve great things with the club. “Was that my best game for Barcelona? One of my best. The best are yet to come. When you play for a club like this, you have to dream big. I came here to make history,” said the 27-year-old about his big plans in the Catalan coastal town.
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