Barcelona continued their extraordinary start to the 2024/25 La Liga season under Hansi Flick at the weekend, putting Villarreal to the sword at Estadi de la Ceramica.
Goals from Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Pablo Torre earned La Blaugrana a thumping 5-1 win on Sunday evening – their six victory in six games in La Liga this season.
The result means that Flick’s side retain their four-point lead atop the table ahead of arch rivals Real Madrid after Gameweek 6 of the 2024/25 campaign.
Here’s Barca’s best players in the win, according to 90min’s esteemed player ratings.
Raphinha: 9/10
After a summer of rumours linking him with an exit, it seems Raphinha is playing like someone with a point to prove in the early weeks of 2024/25.
As he has been quite a few times already this season, Raphinha was utterly brilliant at the weekend.
The Brazilian bagged Barca’s fourth and fifth goals of the game – one a deflected effort and the other a beautiful volley which bounced over Diego Conde in the Villarreal goal – to take his goal contributions tally to seven in just six La Liga outings. That’s world class form.
Honourable mentions
Robert Lewandowski: 9/10
Two 9/10 ratings?
Yep, that’s how good Barca were on Sunday.
After a down season by his standards in 2023/24, Robert Lewandowski has been back to his clinical best under new boss Flick in the first few months of the new campaign.
The Poland international got his side up-and-running in the game with his fifth and sixth La Liga goals of the season in the first half, and his general forward play thereafter was very impressive as he linked up well with both Raphinha and Lamine Yamal throughout.
The only reason Raphinha got the nod for the ‘best player’ accolade ahead of him is because he did miss a penalty in the second half too.
Pablo Torre: 8/10
Thanks to Dani Olmo, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong and Fermin Lopez all being out injured, 21-year-old Pablo Torre was given his first start of the 2024/25 season at the weekend.
In said first start, Torre assisted one goal with a deft through ball to Lewandowski in the 20th minute, and then followed that up with a strike of his own in the second half – seeing a long-range effort take a slight deflection to direct it into the bottom left corner of the net.
So it’s fair to say that Torre grabbed his chance with both hands.
