Barcelona dominated Borussia Dortmund, and Raphinha tied Lionel Messi’s amazing Champions League record.
Barca secured a significant lead ahead of the quarterfinal second-leg matchup in Germany next week by defeating Dortmund 4-0 at Camp Nou.
Raphinha ultimately opened the score after Lamine Yamal’s magical performance in the first few minutes nearly earned him a goal of the season candidate.
The Brazilian made it 1-0 with a close-range tap-home goal. After setting up Robert Lewandowski, who went home, he turned provided.
Yamal added his team’s fourth goal to the scoresheet after Lewandowski scored his second goal of the evening to make it 3-0.
Yamal made no mistake in front of goal after Raphinha slipped in a lovely assist.
Raphinha has now tied Messi’s record for the most goal involvements (19) in a single Champions League season for Barcelona with three goal involvements.
During 2011–12, Messi had 19 goal involvements.
This season, the great winger has scored 12 goals and provided seven assists in the Champions League.
After Barcelona’s decisive victory over Dortmund, Raphinha probably has three more Champions League games left to add to his already excellent record.
In the 2013–14 season, he will now aim to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time record of 21 goal involvements for Real Madrid.
With 13 league goals this season, Raphinha, who signed from Leeds United, is having an incredible season.
This season, he has the potential to guide his team to both La Liga and the Champions League.
The 28-year-old praised his colleagues Lewandowski and Yamal after the game.
“I love playing with high-level players, and Lamine, Robert and me understand each other very well,” he stated. “This is very important, and I hope to continue putting up spectacular numbers.”
Raphinha went on to comment on his goal: “I was really concerned about whether I was offside on the first goal. I expressed my regret to Cubarsí.
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