Raphinha scores again as Barcelona ease past Athletic Club in La Liga

Raphinha nets his third goal in Barcelona’s first two games of new season as Athletic Club beaten 2-0 in La Liga.Raphinha and Fermin ‌Lopez scored as Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at the Camp Nou in ⁠their first home match ⁠of the La Liga season.Raphinha opened the scoring in the 37th minute on Thursday, rounding goalkeeper Unai Simon after Pedri’s through ball split the Athletic defence. Fermin sealed the win ⁠in the 82nd when he pounced on Aymeric Laporte’s defensive howler from Karim Adeyemi’s low cross and finished from inside the box.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Nigeria’s football federation chief resigns amid corruption allegationslist 2 of 4Yaya Toure becomes first African coach to lead a team into Champions Leaguelist 3 of 4Northern Nigeria’s female basketball players chase bigger dreamslist 4 of 4Callaway apologises after golf ad slammed for depicting domestic violenceend of listBarcelona manager Hansi Flick’s side controlled most of the game and created the better ⁠chances, although Athletic goalkeeper Simon kept the visitors in contention with several important saves.Flick made three changes from the team that began the campaign with a 5-0 win at Elche, handing Anthony Gordon his full debut and bringing in Pau Cubarsi and Pedri. Newly-signed Rodri started on the bench.Barcelona started strongly and ‌Simon made a fine one-handed save in the 18th minute to deny Lamine Yamal’s curling effort from the edge of the box.Raphinha went close six minutes later, heading against the post from a cross by academy left back Xavi Espart. Pedri then had a goal ruled out in the 29th minute for offside in the build-up.Barcelona took the lead when Pedri put Raphinha in a great position to round Simon and tap into an empty net.Raphinha, again used as a centre ⁠forward, has scored three goals in Barcelona’s first two league matches while ⁠the club continues to look for a specialist striker before the transfer window closes.Simon prevented a second before halftime, making a sharp close-range save from Lamine. Athletic players appealed for a red card after a challenge by the Barcelona forward on ⁠Laporte, but the referee and VAR took no further action.