The Raphinha brace helped Barcelona beat Aston Villa 3-0 in a UEFA Champions League match at Camp Nou on Tuesday, November 3. Barca were the favourites in the match, but the Raphinha brace ensured that there was no slip-up for them. The 29-year-old Brazilian is enjoying great form this season. As a centre-forward, he has stepped up spectacularly for the Catalan giants.
Raphinha Brace: Another Step Towards Making It A Memorable Season
The Raphinha brace on Tuesday took him to 19 goals in 13 matches this season, which gives him an average of around 1.5 goals per match. That is simply an incredible piece of statistics and goes on to show the kind of impact Raphinha is having for Barcelona this season. The Brazilian was injured for a short while a few weeks ago, and Barca struggled to replace him. The Catalan giants suffered two defeats against Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, with Raphinha playing and scoring against Los Blancos.
The Brazilian continues to be a mobile centre-forward, with exceptional speed of decision-making in the final third. He keeps combining with Anthony Gordon, Lamine Yamal and Fermin Lopez in a very quick manner and keeps beating the opposition defenders on a regular basis. It seems pretty inconceivable that Raphinha was a Leeds United player five seasons ago. He never took the Premier League by storm in the way he is doing for Barca now. He was a contender to win the Ballon d’Or a couple of seasons ago, and if things continue to go like this, he will be in contention again next year.
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Extra Time Notes
Raphinha is approaching 30 and should still have a few seasons left at the top in football. His contract with Barcelona runs until June 2030, and there is no reason why he cannot spend another three seasons at the Catalan club.
As the Raphinha brace against Aston Villa showed, he is one of the best number nines in the world purely based on current form in European football. The Brazilian is making it merry in what is supposed to be the latter stages of his career as a player. Barcelona have a very important match coming up against Atletico Madrid in La Liga this weekend. Atletico are breathing down Barca’s neck in the La Liga table and are only two points behind them. A victory on Sunday will take them past Barca and Diego Simeone’s men will fancy their chances at home.
It will be up to Raphinha to deliver the all-important goals for Barcelona again on Sunday to help his team maintain their position at the top of the table. The Raphinha brace on Tuesday has taken the Brazilian to 19 goals, and another goal will take him to the 20 goals mark only a little more than two months into the season.
Hansi Flick will depend a lot on Raphinha once again, and the international break after the Atletico match will ease the pressure on him somewhat. The Raphinha brace against Aston Villa, however, showed once again that he was capable of handling such pressure.
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