Rayo lead twice at the Camp Nou but Barcelona hit five, Raphinha and Yamal both scoring twice in a 5-2 win

Barcelona are three from three, but Rayo Vallecano made them work for every point of it. Sergio Camello twice put the visitors in front at the Camp Nou, and twice Barcelona had an answer ready.

Camello opened the scoring on 12 minutes, finishing off Álvaro García's cutback. Barcelona levelled through Raphinha seven minutes later, and Lamine Yamal curled Barça in front by the 21st minute, cutting in from the right before placing it into the top corner.

Camello's second forces Barcelona to pull away again

Six minutes into the second half, a move started by the increasingly influential Anthony Gordon ended with Florian Lejeune turning the ball into his own net to make it 3-1. Rayo would not go quietly: Camello headed in his second from a corner on 59 minutes to keep the visitors within a goal.

Barcelona settled it late. Gordon raced onto a ball over the top and cushioned it back into Raphinha's path for his second of the night on 71 minutes, and Yamal added his own second — and a fifth for the hosts — in the 90th minute, curling a left-footed finish into the bottom corner after Karim Adeyemi's cutback.

Sergio Camello's five goals in three matches

Camello's brace at the Camp Nou was not an isolated afternoon. He had already opened the scoring in Rayo's second matchday, a 1-1 draw at home to Alavés in which he struck three minutes into the second half, and two rounds later he scored twice again — both inside a five-minute spell either side of half-time — in a 3-2 win over Racing Santander. That is five goals in three of Rayo's first four league matches, the only blank coming on the opening weekend at Sevilla, when Álvaro García rather than Camello put the visitors ahead.

Raphinha and Yamal keep sharing the goals

Raphinha's brace against Rayo fit a pattern he kept up all month. He had opened the scoring against Athletic Club in matchday 1, added a penalty and a second goal at Elche in matchday 2, and would score again in the 5-0 win at Valencia in matchday 4 — six goals from Barcelona's first four league matches, without a single game passing blank. Lamine Yamal's double at the Camp Nou turned out to be the first half of back-to-back braces: six days later, at the Mestalla, he opened the scoring inside six minutes and closed it again late on in the same 5-0 win over Valencia.

Match facts

• 12' — Sergio Camello (Rayo Vallecano)
• 19' — Raphinha (Barcelona)
• 21' — Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)
• 51' — Florian Lejeune (Rayo Vallecano, own goal)
• 59' — Sergio Camello (Rayo Vallecano)
• 71' — Raphinha (Barcelona)
• 90' — Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)

Where the table stood after matchday 3

Barcelona had opened matchday 3 second on six points from two games, level on points with Real Madrid, Sevilla and Real Betis but ahead only on the head-to-head tie-break; a third straight win kept them inside the Champions League places and level with Real Madrid, who beat Málaga 4-0 earlier in the round. Rayo Vallecano had gone into the round on a single point from their first two matches and still had work to do to climb off the bottom half of the table.

What's next

Barcelona kept the run going, beating Valencia 5-0 at the Mestalla in matchday 4 to make it four wins from four. In the LaLiga standings after that round, they sit 1st on 12 points, with a goal difference of +15 that is the best in the division and a place inside the Champions League zone (top four). Rayo Vallecano, who trailed twice here and still lost by three, answered in the very next round: a 3-2 win over Racing Santander in which they finished with nine men after two red cards. That result lifted them to 13th on 4 points from four games, with a goal difference of -3. Both sides return to league action after the international break.