AFCON 2025
Raphinha inspired a rampant Barcelona to a 5-1 demolition of Feyenoord at Camp Nou, while Stuttgart produced a stunning first-half blitz to sink Norwegian champions Viking 3-1 on a thrilling opening night of Champions League action.
Raphinha needed just three minutes to open the scoring, ghosting past two Feyenoord defenders before slotting home from a Lamine Yamal assist. Karim Adeyemi doubled the lead soon after with a curling effort from 20 yards, before Raphinha added his second after the break to put the game beyond doubt.
The brace extended a scorching start to the season for the Barcelona captain, who arrived at the match having already scored six goals in four La Liga appearances. His double against Feyenoord takes his tally to eight goals in five games across all competitions this season, a pace matched at Barcelona in the last two decades only by Lionel Messi.
Raphinha becomes the first Barcelona player since 2000 to score in the club’s first five games of a season across all competitions.
Lamine Yamal capped a dominant display with a brilliant free-kick to make it 4-0, and although Feyenoord pulled one back, substitute Gabriel Jesus scored his first Barcelona goal to restore the five-goal cushion and complete a perfect start to Hansi Flick’s European campaign.
At the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart produced one of the night’s standout individual performances as Ermedin Demirović struck a remarkable first-half hat-trick to sink Viking FK.
Viking stunned the hosts by taking the lead through captain Zlatko Tripić, only for Demirović to respond in emphatic fashion, netting in the 20th, 26th and 32nd minutes to turn the contest on its head inside 12 dramatic minutes.
The treble marked the first hat-trick of this season’s Champions League and the fifth-fastest in the competition’s history, with Demirović becoming only the second Bosnian player, after Edin Džeko, to score a Champions League hat-trick.
The results give both Barcelona and Stuttgart perfect starts to their league-phase campaigns, with Wednesday’s card also featuring Liverpool hosting Atlético Madrid in the day’s headline fixture.
