Raphinha eyes Barça scoring record vs Valencia

Raphinha has a chance this afternoon to join a very short list. Barcelona's forward travels to the Ciutat de València to face Valencia (16.15, DAZN) looking to score in each of his side's first five league games of the season, a feat managed by only two players in Barça's history.

César Rodríguez did it in 1950-51. Zlatan Ibrahimovic did it in 2009-10. Nobody else in the club's history has opened a league campaign with such a run, and since Ibrahimovic equalled César's mark with a goal at Málaga on 26 September 2009, in a 0-2 completed by Gerard Piqué, no other player in La Liga has matched it either.

Raphinha's numbers this season are hard to ignore. He opened the scoring with a penalty against Elche (0-5), struck again in the win over Athletic (2-0), was first to score once more before adding a fourth against Rayo Vallecano (5-2), and got the third in the 0-5 at Valencia. That is six goals in four league rounds, on top of a midweek double against Feyenoord in the Champions League (5-1), where he also opened the scoring.

The wider record for a start to a league season belongs jointly to José Vilanova, who scored in Hercules' first seven matches of 1939-40 with 13 goals, Pruden Sánchez, who managed 12 for Atlético in 1940-41, and Enrique Castro "Quini", who also reached 12 with Sporting. Lionel Messi's record of scoring in 19 consecutive league matches, set in 2012-13, came from the 11th to the 29th round rather than from the start of a campaign, so it does not apply to this particular list.

If Raphinha scores again against Valencia, he draws level with Ibrahimovic and moves within one match of matching César's five-game run from 1950-51, a season in which the Spaniard went on to score nine goals in those opening five fixtures.