Raphinha let his football do the talking after a surprise omission from the Ballon d’Or shortlist, netting twice as Barcelona cruised to a 5-1 victory over Feyenoord in their Champions League opener at a rain-lashed Camp Nou.
The Brazilian forward, overlooked for the 30-man candidate list announced earlier this week, channeled any frustration into an early-season purple patch that has now yielded eight goals in just six appearances. He opened the scoring with a clinical finish inside three minutes and doubled the advantage just before the hour mark to effectively settle the contest against the Eredivisie side.
Summer arrival Karim Adeyemi announced himself with a stunning strike, while Lamine Yamal curled a free-kick through a gap in the Dutch wall. Fellow new signing Gabriel Jesus marked his home debut by opening his account for the club barely two minutes after entering the fray. Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s return to his former club ended in disappointment, though Sem Steijn provided a late consolation for the visitors with a close-range finish.
“The most important thing is we are playing like a team, like one unit,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick said. “We controlled the game, we are dominant and this is fantastic to see. This is our style and how we want to play.”
Ferran Torres plundered a hat-trick and Ousmane Dembélé sparkled against his former club as Paris Saint-Germain launched their bid for a third consecutive Champions League crown with a 6-1 demolition of Slovan Bratislava at the Parc des Princes.
The reigning Ballon d’Or holder Dembélé had already struck twice by the midway point of the first half, then turned provider for Spain’s World Cup winner Torres to make it 3-0 by the interval. Torres, a close-season recruit from Barcelona, added two more shortly after the restart to complete his treble before the hour. Suleiman Camara pulled one back for the Slovakian champions before Fabián Ruiz sealed the rout.
Elsewhere, Stuttgart’s Ermedin Demirovic produced a first-half masterclass, netting a 12-minute hat-trick to secure a 3-1 win over Viking Stavanger. The striker opened the scoring at the near post after 20 minutes, only for Zlatko Tripic to level two minutes later with a composed left-footed finish on the counter-attack. Demirovic swiftly restored the lead in the 26th minute and completed his treble with a hooked volley six minutes later. “For me personally it was the perfect start and also for the team as a whole,” Demirovic told Dazn.
Sporting, quarter-finalists last season for the first time since 1983, recovered from an early setback to defeat Galatasaray 3-1 in Lisbon. Gonçalo Inácio’s own goal gave the Turkish side a dream start, but Geny Catamo punished hesitant defending to equalise in the 27th minute. Luis Suárez converted a 57th-minute penalty to put the hosts ahead, and Rodrigo Zalazar’s blistering free-kick six minutes later wrapped up the three points.
