Raphinha continued his red-hot form with a hat-trick in a 3-1 win at Sevilla as defending champion Barcelona recorded a seventh straight victory in La Liga on Saturday.
Lamine Yamal set up two of the irrepressible Brazilian’s goals to make it a La Liga-high 12 so far – one less than Raphinha scored all last season.
Earlier, Lautaro Martinez rescued Inter Milan with two second-half goals as the defending Serie A champion drew 2-2 at Roma in their table-topping clash.
Arsenal lost top spot in the Premier League after a first defeat and Borussia Dortmund went first in Germany with a fourth straight victory.
This time it wasn’t Donyell Malen scoring for Roma but midfielder Manu Kone with two first-half goals as Roma stayed top on goal difference. Martinez netted twice in the second half as both sides remained undefeated. Maximilian Beier’s effort gave Dortmund a 1-0 win at Stuttgart and a two-point lead over defending champion Bayern Munich.
Kone put Roma ahead in the sixth minute after being set up by Nahuel Molina, who nodded back a back-post cross from Paulo Dybala for Kone to run onto.
He scored again from close range in the 37th after being set up by Gianluca Mancini, following another curling cross by Dybala.
Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini stopped Kone being sold to Inter in the offseason.
Martinez replied immediately after the break, clipping the ball inside the post after combining superbly with Marcus Thuram on a swift counterattack, then equalized in the 79th.
Third-placed Lazio won 2-0 at Venezia while fourth-placed Cagliari continued its fine start with a 1-0 win at Udinese. Midfielder Daniel Maldini scored for the Sardinian side.
After firing coach Domenico Tedesco, Bologna drew 1-1 at home to Torino.
Barca has 31 goals in seven games and moved six points ahead of Real Madrid, which play at Atletico Madrid.
Raphinha cut inside a defender and found the bottom right corner for his first goal, which came midway through the first half and after Youssouf Fofana gave Sevilla the lead.
Lamine Yamal bamboozled the Sevilla defense with quick footwork before crossing for Raphinha to head in from close range in the 52nd. Yamal then assisted again.
Barring injury, Raphinha is set to smash his career best tally of 18 league goals from two seasons ago.
Rayo Vallecano striker Sergio Camello made it seven goals so far in a 1-1 draw at Osasuna.
After being crushed 7-2 by Barca in midweek, Racing Santander was routed 5-0 at Celta Vigo with Pablo Duran scoring twice.
Alaves drew 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao in a Basque Country derby. Agencies