عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Sports

Raphinha Steals the Show in Barcelona's Statement Win over Bayern

Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
TT
20
TT

Raphinha Steals the Show in Barcelona's Statement Win over Bayern

Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Barcelona's game against Bayern Munich was billed as a duel between Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski. Then Raphinha stole the show and left to a standing ovation.
Kane and Lewandowski both scored, but the Brazilian winger's hat trick for Barcelona outshone both of the strikers in Barcelona's 4-1 statement win in the Champions League on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
“I have a fantastic team, and the players are unbelievable. But I’ve never had a player like Raphinha, because he’s incredibly dynamic both with and without the ball,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “Every single team needs him, but we have him.”
Raphinha joined a select group of players who've scored hat tricks against Bayern in the Champions League — only Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Aguero and Roy Makaay had done it before.
“He always gives 100% in good and bad times. He’s working just as hard and giving everything for all his teammates. I’m so happy for him tonight,” defender Jules Koundé said of Raphinha.
Each of his three goals stood out in its own way. First, Raphinha darted in behind Bayern's defense to score in the very first minute, then he shot the ball between defender Dayot Upamecano's legs to score his second just before halftime.
The third goal saw Raphinha display his technique to control Lamine Yamal's cross-field pass on his chest and exploit the gap between two defenders before completing the hat trick.
Barcelona's fans were again on their feet to applaud when Raphinha, who had also captained the team because of Marc-André ter Stegen's injury, was substituted in the 75th, leaving him a little fresher for Saturday's “Clasico” against Real Madrid.
Raphinha's demolition job on the Bayern defense also means plaudits for Flick, who was the comprehensive winner against his old team, Bayern, with whom Flick beat Barcelona 8-2 in 2020.
The loss throws Bayern's season under new coach Vincent Kompany into turmoil.
Bayern began its Champions League campaign with a record-breaking 9-2 demolition of Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb but is now 23rd in the Champions League standings, one place below Zagreb, after back-to-back losses to Aston Villa and Barcelona. Across all competitions, Bayern has won just one of its last five games.
The ease with which Raphinha was able to exploit gaps in the back line could reopen questions about whether Bayern, which has now conceded seven goals in its last three games, remains fragile in defense.

Most Viewed

 
Sports

Alysa Liu Delivers the US Its First Women’s Figure Skating World Championship in Nearly 2 Decades

Figure Skating - ISU World Championships - TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, US - March 28, 2025 Gold medallist Alysa Liu of the US celebrates with her medal after winning the Women’s Figure Skating World Championships. (Reuters)
Figure Skating - ISU World Championships - TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, US - March 28, 2025 Gold medallist Alysa Liu of the US celebrates with her medal after winning the Women’s Figure Skating World Championships. (Reuters)
TT
20
TT

Alysa Liu Delivers the US Its First Women’s Figure Skating World Championship in Nearly 2 Decades

Figure Skating - ISU World Championships - TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, US - March 28, 2025 Gold medallist Alysa Liu of the US celebrates with her medal after winning the Women’s Figure Skating World Championships. (Reuters)
Figure Skating - ISU World Championships - TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, US - March 28, 2025 Gold medallist Alysa Liu of the US celebrates with her medal after winning the Women’s Figure Skating World Championships. (Reuters)

Alysa Liu skated around the ice in disbelief, her golden dress shimmering in the lights of TD Garden, and the appreciative roar from a sellout crowd reminded her why she had returned to the sport following a nearly two-year retirement.

When her score was finally read, the 19-year-old from Clovis, California, had made history.

Liu became the first American women’s figure skating world champion in nearly two decades, dethroning three-time defending champ Kaori Sakamoto with a brilliant free skate Friday night. Her program to a rendition of "MacArthur Park" by Boston native Donna Summer earned her a standing ovation, and allowed Liu to finish with 222.97 points.

"I mean, it means so much to me and everything I've been through," Liu said. "My last skating experience, my time away and this time around — I'm so happy, I guess. I'm mostly glad I could put out two of my best performances."

Liu's coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, pulled her into a hug in the kiss-and-cry area of the arena. Moments later, Sakamoto came over from where she had watched in the leader's chair and squeezed her tightly, as if Japan’s hero was passing Liu the torch as the first world champion from the US since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium in 2006.

Sakamoto finished with 217.98 points to add a silver medal to her three previous golds. Her Japanese teammate, Mone Chiba, was third with 215.24 points while Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn gave the Americans three of the top five.

"We are all so strong," Levito said, "and we are all such fighters, and we all have our strengths, and are so different but we’re all so sweet with each other. I’m just so glad these are my fellow Team USA skaters."

Liu was once considered the sport's rising star, the youngest-ever US champ when she triumphed at the age of 13 in 2019, and then defended her title the following year. She fulfilled a childhood ambition by qualifying for the Olympics, finishing sixth at the 2022 Beijing Games, and earned a bronze medal at the world championships that year.

Then she stepped away. Liu decided that skating had become less of joy and more of a job, and she wanted to focus on being a normal college student. It wasn't until she went on a ski trip and felt the rush of competition — albeit in a much different way, and with far lower stakes — that she began to think about a comeback.

Early last year, she made it official with a cryptic posting on social media. And while the path back in a notoriously fickle sport was bumpy, to be sure, Liu took a big step forward with her second-place finish to Glenn at the US championships.

She took the last step up on the podium Friday night.

"Not every yesterday, I didn't expect this. I didn't have expectations coming in," Liu said. "I never have expectations coming into competitions anymore. It's more so, ‘What can I put out performance-wise?’ I really met my expectations on my part."

She left Sakamoto, the erstwhile champion, with feelings of awe and admiration.

"She went away and now she's back, and the world champion," Sakamoto said. "I wouldn't say she's changed. Her cheerfulness and kindness and the way she's always happy brought her to the top step of the podium."

Earlier in the night, American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates built a big cushion as they chase their third consecutive title, scoring a season-best 90.18 points for their rhythm dance to lead Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

Gilles and Poirier scored 86.44 points to their dance, set to music from The Beach Boys. They held the lead only long enough for the US duo to finish their "tour of the decades" program, which earned them a raucous ovation inside TD Garden.

The International Skating Union chose the theme this season of social dances and styles of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. But while some skaters picked one — the Watusi, the Madison or disco — Chock and Bates threw it all into their rollicking showcase.

"It was probably the most fun I've had thus far on competitive ice in a performance, maybe ever," Chock said. "It was really a joy to perform in front of a home crowd and share that excitement with Evan. It was the best."

Now, Chock and Bates will try to finish off the first three-peat since Russia's Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov in the 1990s.

"That’s a tough amount of points to catch up on," Poirier admitted, "but we also know that sport is really unpredictable."