Joao Cancelo hails ‘best goal of my career’ after Barcelona rout Racing Santander

Joao Cancelo described his strike in Barcelona’s 7-2 victory over Racing Santander as the best goal of his career, as the Catalan club maintained their perfect start to the La Liga season.

Cancelo returned to the starting line-up and opened the scoring after only eight minutes, finding the far corner with an impressive effort from outside the penalty area. He also scored again as Barcelona recorded another emphatic win.

Raphinha played a leading role in the result, scoring a hat-trick to take his La Liga tally to nine goals. Barcelona’s other goals came from Cancelo, Gabriel Jesus and Lamine Yamal, while Racing Santander’s goals were scored by Maget Joie and Yasser Zabiri.

“It was the best goal of my career, and it was even more special because it came with this club,” Cancelo told reporters after the match. “I wanted to come here from the beginning of last season.”

The Portugal international has not had many opportunities to start, but said he had continued working hard in training so he would be ready when required.

“I have not had many chances to start, but I have always trained hard to help the team when it needs me,” he added. “I needed this goal to gain more confidence, and I achieved that.”

Cancelo acknowledged that an element of luck was involved, but said the result remained the most important aspect.

“You need a little bit of luck, but the most important thing is that the team won,” he said.

He faces competition for his place from Xavi Espart and Alejandro Balde, although Cancelo believes the battle for selection benefits Barcelona.

“All the players are in good physical condition and ready to play,” he said. “It is important to have competition within the team. It is healthy competition.”

Barcelona have now won all of their matches this season and will face Sevilla on Saturday. The victory over Racing Santander took them to 18 points at the top of La Liga, while Racing remain on seven points in 10th place.

Barcelona are the first team to score 27 goals in their opening six La Liga matches since Sevilla scored 32 during the 1940-41 season.

Head coach Hans-Dieter Flick has won 77% of his official matches in charge of Barcelona, recording 95 victories in 124 games. That is the best win rate achieved by a Barcelona manager in the 21st century, ahead of Luis Enrique’s 76%.

Raphinha has scored 11 goals in all official competitions this season, making him the leading scorer among players from clubs in Europe’s five major leagues.