Barcelona 5-1 Villarreal (22 September 2024) Match Analysis

Barcelona continued their perfect start to LaLiga as strikers Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha both scored twice to help them beat hosts Villarreal 5-1 in a highly entertaining game on Sunday.

Lewandowski scored twice in 35 minutes before Villarreal quickly pulled one back through Ayoze Pérez, but Pablo Torre made it 3-1 after the break and Raphinha sealed the win for Barca with two goals late in the second half.

Hansi Flick's side extended their winning streak in the league to six games as they recovered from a 2-1 defeat to Monaco in the Champions League on Thursday.

Barcelona remains top of the table with 18 points and has a four-point lead over defending champions Real Madrid in second place.

Villarreal, who suffered their first LaLiga defeat of the season, are in fifth place with 11 points.

Shortly before half-time, the visitors lost their goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen after the German goalkeeper fell to the ground and was visibly in pain as he was carried off the pitch on a stretcher.

The weakened Barca were already missing new signing Dani Olmo, who was out with a right thigh injury, as well as midfielders Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Marc Bernal and Fermín López and defenders Ronald Araújo and Andreas Christensen.

Villarreal proved to be a tough opponent with dangerous counterattacks and three goals that were disallowed for minor offsides during the game.

The first of these goals came in the eighth minute, when Yeremy Pino thought he had given the hosts a surprise lead after the midfielder played a lob to ter Stegen and only saw the flag go up.

Lewandowski then opened the scoring after 20 minutes with a simple direct shot and followed up in the 35th minute with an overhead kick from close range after the ball had rebounded off goalkeeper Diego Conde.

The Polish striker, who set a world record nine years ago to the day when he scored five goals in nine minutes for Bayern Munich, took the lead in the goalscoring charts with six goals in six games.

Villarreal were far from giving up and Perez reduced the deficit with a goal in the 38th minute before the brilliant ter Stegen prevented Nicolas Pépé from equalising shortly before half-time.

However, Barca were once again unstoppable and Torre scored a third goal in the 58th minute with a shot from outside the box before Raphinha sealed the win with his fourth and fifth goals of the season.

Lewandowski could have scored only his second LaLiga hat-trick since joining in 2022 when he took a penalty following a foul on Lamine Yamal, but hit the post instead.

Barcelona have won their first six games of the season for the first time since 2017/18 and only the eighth time overall.