28-year-old Barcelona star closing in on Champions League Golden Boot and assist crown | OneFootball

The Copa del Rey victory, which came with a morale-boosting 3-2 win over their arch-rivals Real Madrid, already seems to be a thing of the past as FC Barcelona are now set to play another crucial game tonight. The Blaugranes are set to face Inter Milan in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final tie at the Montjuic.

Following the cup win, the Catalan team is now aiming to win the remaining two titles, i.e., the UCL and La Liga. Thus, tonight’s match will be important for all the involved players, as they will look to help their team get to the final.

A special night awaits Raphinha

However, one player who should be particularly keen to make some goal contributions is the Brazilian winger Raphinha. As Mundo Deportivo has noted, he is only a single goal behind Serhou Guirassy in the UCL top scorer rankings, and would be keen to overtake him tonight.

The Borussia Dortmund striker has 13 UCL goals to his name this season, after the hat-trick he scored against Barcelona in the last round of the competition. However, his side was eliminated in the quarter-finals, and now Raphinha has at least a two-game advantage over him to take his tally higher than the 12 goals he currently has.

In fact, the Brazilian can also go on to equalise, or even beat, Lionel Messi’s record of 14 goals scored in a single campaign for the Blaugrana club.

Borussia Dortmund forward Serhou Guirassy playing against Barcelona. [Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images]

Raphinha’s closest challengers

Robert Lewandowski also has 11 goals to his name up to now, but it remains to be seen if he will be able to play in this edition of the UCL again, as he is currently injured and doubtful even for the second leg of the semi-final.

Thus, the player best placed to compete with Raphinha by adding more goals in the remaining part of the competition is the Inter Milan forward, Lautaro Martinez, who has 8 goals to his name.

Furthermore, the Brazilian star will also be looking to add further to his assist tally, even though he is currently leading the way in the UCL in this regard, with his 7 assists so far. Joshua Kimmich (6), Fermin Lopez (5), and Achraf Hakimi (5) are his closest pursuers.