Barcelona re-established their healthy lead at the top of La Liga on Sunday afternoon, beating Sevilla 5-2 to move back four points clear of Real Madrid. It was another fruitful outing for Raphinha, who bagged a hat-trick in the win. Two of his strikes came from the penalty spot, with his third a looping deflection that put the game to bed early in the second half.
There were no signs of nerves from the reigning champions, who had the lead inside seven minutes. Some slick play on the left-hand side saw Joao Cancelo burst into the box, before being tripped by a clumsy Djibril Sow challenge. The referee did not hesitate to point to the spot, with Raphinha stepping up and delivering a Panenka penalty to give his team the lead.
Just 10 minutes later and the Brazilian had another opportunity from the spot, while it was once again Cancelo who did the dirty work in the box, weaving past traffic, with the ball hitting the arm of Jose Carmona. After a VAR review, Raphinha was in position for his second penalty of the afternoon, this time driving the ball low and hard into the bottom corner.
Much of the remaining time in the first half did not produce too much excitement, but the one time the Blaugrana carved Sevilla open, they scored. This time is was Dani Olmo on the scoresheet, making a late run into the box to be found by Marc Bernal. The Spain international hit the ball first time and into the corner, appearing to put the game to bed in the first half. That was until Sevilla got one back in the depths of stoppage time, as a lovely floated cross from Juanlu Sanchez found Oso, who hit a composed volley into the far corner.
Normal service was resumed early in the second half, with Raphinha grabbing his hat-trick to kill the game. Some smart work on the edge of the box saw the winger open up a fraction of space, before his shot took a looping deflection and beat the goalkeeper.
Cancelo capped off a fantastic afternoon with a goal of his own, cutting inside and finding the net to pile more misery on the visitors, and while Sevilla did pull back another consolation deep into stoppage time, it was too little too late.
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