Barça’s sensational start to the 2024-2025 football season has been near perfect. Last week was a test of how far this team has come along and they passed the test with flying colors. After finally ending their bad losing streak against Bayern Munich in Europe, Barça also ended another losing streak against their arch enemy, Real Madrid with a 4-0 victory at the ground of Los Blancos.

Throughout the season, many were impressed by Barça’s football under manager Hansi Flick. With the minor hiccups against Monaco in the Champions League, and against Osasuna in La Liga, the Blaugrana have been near perfect. The injury of Marc-André ter Stegen meant Iñaki Peña was now the starter and the club managed to get Wojciech Szczęsny out of retirement. However, the true test was going to be the week that Barça would face Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

Barça passed their first test with ease. Against Bayern, Raphinha opened the scoring in the opening minute. Although Bayern would equalize, Barça would score three unanswered goals at their temporary home Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys. It was a brilliant result for Barça but many critics claimed that they were fortunate that Bayern didn’t make them pay for playing such a high defensive line.

Thus, the clash in the Spanish Capital against Real Madrid was now going to be the true test of how good Barça truly was. Again, many were worried Barça would pay the price for their high defensive line against the likes of Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior, especially after they scored five unanswered goals against Dortmund prior to this match. The first half of El Clásico was not one of Barça’s best halves of the season, with the young Fermín López being taken off at the break for Frenkie de Jong, who suffered a major injury in this fixture about a year ago and has just recently returned to action. The second half saw Barça demolish their rivals by scoring four goals in a matter of 30 minutes.

Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha all scored while the likes of Mbappé and Vinícius were a nonfactor thanks to the total team effort of the Blaugrana. Iñaki Peña and the back four Jules Koundé, Pau Cubarsí, Iñigo Martínez, and Alejandro Balde were excellent. The back four’s timing with the offside trap was remarkable and reminded me of the mighty AC Milan under Arrigo Sachi and the story of how he tied a rope to his back four to perfect their timing. The midfield of Marc Casadó, Pedri, and Frenkie bossed the pitch and the front three made their presence felt with their goals. With all the preseason hype of goals to come from Real Madrid’s front three of Mbappé, Vinícius and Rodrygo, it’s Lewandowski who leads La Liga with 14 goals, Raphinha has 6 goals and Lamine Yamal has 5 goals.

It was also great to see Gavi get back on the pitch and get booked as well. Six Barça players 22 or younger featured for the Blaugrana against Real Madrid, which is a great endorsement of the quality coming through La Masia. One also has to wonder how Arda Güler and Endrick must have felt watching from the bench with their team down 4-0, and yet they were not called upon to make an impact. This victory also ended Real Madrid’s unbeaten run of 42 La Liga matches, which was one match shy of equaling the all-time record of 43, which was set Barça. The only negative was the racial abuse aimed at the direction of our players, and hopefully we see less of that as La Liga and Spain start to crackdown on that sort of disgusting behavior. 

More importantly, this match gives Barça a six-point lead atop of the league standings. They have another big match coming up this weekend when they host Espanyol in the Derbi Barceloní, which may see them have a nine-point lead atop of the standings. It is true that the league is now won in October, however, it can certainly be lost this early in the season. Thanks to the great work by Hansi Flick, and the players, the future looks bright once again.  

The Blaugrana Faithful are enjoying this great start by their beloved Barça. With a new manager, and a young star blossoming in front of our eyes, hopes were high. Barça’s great start to the season has been a wonderful surprise, but the bigger surprise has to be the player leading the charge when most expected him gone; Raphinha.

Barça fans were enthusiastic about the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Hansi Flick was hired to be the man in charge. Lamine Yamal was coming off winning Euro 2024 with Spain where he was voted Young Player of the Tournament, and Barça signed former youth player Dani Olmo, who shined at Euro 2024. Barça fans were also enthusiastic about the possibility of the signing of another key player from that triumphant Spanish side, Nico Williams at the expense of Raphinha being sold to another club.

Fast forward to today, and all the enthusiasm has been rewarded with Barça being league leaders and doing well in the Champions League. The Nico Williams transfer never went through, but thankfully Raphinha has not made us think of Nico once. So far this season, in just 12 matches in La Liga and Champions League, Raphinha has scored 9 goals and has 6 assists.

Raphinha could have easily sulked and complained about his situation and future at the club. Instead, he has been very professional and it had to be noticed by his teammates when they voted him to be one of the captains of the team. Raphinha has been sensational and will be wearing the captain’s armband in El Clasico at Madrid. If Raphinha continues to shine like this, it won’t be long before we start comparing him with other Brazilian Barça legends such as Romario, Ronaldo, Rivado, Ronaldinho and Neymar.