Raphinha became the first Barcelona player in 11 years to score a perfect LaLiga hat-trick as the leaders recovered from falling behind to beat Sevilla 3-1 at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
The Brazil forward, operating in a centre-forward role this season, scored twice in the second half after cancelling out Youssouf Fofana’s opener. Lamine Yamal provided two assists, helping Barcelona secure a seventh successive league victory.
Barcelona had started brightly, with Yamal coming close to opening the scoring when his curling effort from distance struck the post.
Sevilla then showed why the fixture had been regarded as Barcelona’s biggest test of the season so far. Fofana met Felix Correia’s clipped cross with a powerful header at the near post, beating La Liga debutant Dominik Livakovic to give the hosts the lead.
The advantage lasted only around 10 minutes. Raphinha timed his run behind the Sevilla defence to meet Andreas Christensen’s through ball, cut inside on to his right foot and calmly placed his finish beyond the goalkeeper.
The goal took him into double figures after just seven league matches and ensured the two sides went into half-time level.
Yamal had endured the frustration of seeing Sevilla supporters mock him after a first-half miss, but the 19-year-old responded decisively after the interval.
He collected the ball out of the air, evaded the attention of two Sevilla defenders and delivered a precise cross for Raphinha, who headed Barcelona in front with his second goal of the match.
Barcelona’s captain almost completed his hat-trick directly from a corner moments later, but his ambitious attempt struck the far post.
The third goal arrived shortly before the 70-minute mark. Yamal slipped a perfectly weighted pass through to Raphinha, who lifted a left-footed finish over the advancing Odysseas Vlachodimos to complete his second hat-trick in succession.
The 29-year-old’s 14th competitive goal confirmed the win and moved Barcelona six points clear at the top of the table. The result also prevented the Catalan club from suffering successive away defeats against Sevilla for the first time since 2007.
Barcelona had gone into the match on the back of an emphatic 7-2 victory over Racing de Santander, in which Yamal recorded three goal contributions.
Sevilla can take some consolation from the fact they are guaranteed to remain fifth when the teams depart for the upcoming international break, after a stalemate in Bilbao earlier in the day.
Raphinha was named Flashscore’s Man of the Match.