Raphinha’s two crucial involvements that allowed Barcelona to win against Leganes | OneFootball

FC Barcelona is a team that has been a joy to watch both for the football that they play and the results that they produce. A high-intensity and courageous style of play, it is a rather new tactical set-up for the Catalan club. Instead of relying on their possession to be secure, Barcelona now use it to fuel their intensity.

Throughout this season, it has been clear that this team is built like a machine. Churning out goals on the regular, this Barcelona team is among the very best attacking sides in all of European football this season, and they are on course to be a record-breaking one as well.

However, not everything can be sorted into statistics that pop up every now and then. Instead, there are certain moments that must be applauded for the way they change the outcomes of certain games without directly giving a lot of credit to the player who is involved.

Such was the case for Raphinha, as highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, who had two particularly crucial moves against Leganes that enabled Barcelona to get all three points. Interestingly, they both came on two different ends of the pitch.

The first one was a crucial intervention that saw the Brazilian forward run all the way back from the front of the attack to being the last line of defense in a move that saw him reportedly cover close to 70 meters. He even timed his run to help Ronald Araujo play the offside trap, but committed to the challenge as soon as he realized that his defense had been beat.

That interception was arguably a game-changing moment, as it could have easily been a Leganes goal right there and then. However, that is not all that the Barcelona star contributed, as he also had a massive role to play in the one goal that La Blaugrana scored.

Following a crucial block from Gerard Martin that initiated a counter-attack for Barcelona, Raphinha played a scintillating pass that was on its way to Robert Lewandowski. However, a Leganes defender tried to stop it and it deflected into his own net to give Barça their only goal of the game.

While neither of these two moments will be key numbers in terms of statistics for Raphinha, there are still two moments that helped define the game against Leganes and allowed Barcelona to win all three points. His best personal season continues to go on, and moments like these only add to the quality of his campaign.