Raphinha was star man for Barcelona against Newcastle United at the Nou Camp.
Having been kept very quiet at St James’ Park in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 tie.
It was very different on Wednesday night in the second leg.
Raphinha was named official man of the match following this Barcelona 7 Newcastle 2 game.
The Brazil international scoring Barcelona’s first and last goal, whilst also getting assists for the fourth (Fermin Lopez) and fifth (Lewandowski) goals.
Raphinha has been talking about last night’s game: “That was a complicated match against a team we knew would be tough physically. Newcastle United are strong, spectacularly so. I knew from my time in the Premier League what they’re like. Especially at St James’ Park, so I thought to come here having drawn in Newcastle was very good.”
The winger played for Leeds between 2020 and 2022, before moving to Barcelona for a reported £55m.
Raphinha going on to say: “As I emphasised last week, Newcastle here in front of our fans for 90 minutes was going to be hard for them. I thought that the second half was much better from us.”
The 29 year old Barcelona star scored a hat-trick at the weekend in the 5-2 La Liga win over Sevilla, two penalties amongst his goals.
Raphinha could have potentially had a second hat-trick in a matter of days, but it was Lamine Yamal who took the penalty last night, making it 3-2 on the stroke of half-time.
Raphinha explaining why Lamine Yamal took this latest Barcelona penalty: “Look, goalkeepers are always well prepared these days. No matter who takes it. But during the match you get an idea, it is about confidence on the night and Lamine told me he was keen to take it. When you see his confidence you trust it, it went well, he hit it really nicely.”