Barcelona and their Brazilian forward Raphinha continued their prolific start to the new season with a 5-1 rout of Feyenoord in their opening Champions League clash on Wednesday.
Raphinha, relishing his new role as a central striker, found the net twice at the Camp Nou to become the first player since at least 2000 score in Barcelona's first five games of the season.
His tally for the campaign now stands at eight, the most by a Barcelona player in the club's first five games since Robert Lewandowski in 2022-23.
"The truth is that a season has its ups and downs, and to start this season gives us a lot of confidence," Raphinha told Movistar Plus.
Adding to a fine night for the Catalan club, summer signing Karim Adeyemi scored a stunning curling strike in the first half, while Lamine Yamal reached 101 goal contributions for Barcelona with a goal and two assists.
Teenage star Yamal fired a free kick left-footed from 20 yards in the 77th minute that went between two Feyenoord players jumping and turning sideways in the wall. It was the 19-year-old's 12th Champions League goal, putting him one behind Kylian Mbappé for the most goals by a teenager in competition history.
The scoring was completed with Gabriel Jesus finding the net with a header just two minutes after coming off the bench to get his first goal for Barcelona since his transfer from Arsenal.
There was little to celebrate for Feyenoord coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst on his Barcelona return but Sem Steijn gave the visiting fans something to enjoy when he poked in at far post late on.
It was the fourth time in five games this season that Barcelona have scored five goals, and their 22 goals so far are the most the club has scored at this stage of a campaign since 1950.
Their goal differential of plus-19 is the best in Barcelona's opening five matches since 1926.
This season, Raphinha has been a big reason why Barcelona is off to an intimidatingly good start in LaLiga, where it has outscored opponents 17-2 in four rounds. That goal difference of plus-15 over the first four games is the best start in the history of the club.
Raphinha struggled with injuries last season and had his World Cup with Brazil cut short because of a hamstring pull. That likely played into him not making the 30 finalists for the Ballon d'Or that were announced on Tuesday. He finished fifth in the voting in the 2025 edition of the award.
When asked about not being on the Ballon d'Or list, Raphinha said he didn't want to talk about it.
"I only talk about how Barça is having a great season," he said.
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and PA contributed to this report.
