Eight from eight without Raphinha

Last week's preview warned that Getafe could make an evening of free kicks if Barça did not score early. Anthony Gordon scored inside two minutes, his first La Liga goal, after beating two defenders. The shot deflected off Mario Martín. It was also the earliest goal in the league this season. Gabriel Jesus made it 2–0 in the 30th minute after Zaid Romero lost the ball in his own box. It was Jesus's first start for Barça. He has scored with all three of his shots on target for the club.

Hansi Flick said the early goal mattered after three weeks away. Getafe were behind before they could settle, and Barça's press turned Romero's mistake into a second goal.

Barça had almost 85% of the ball after the break. David Soria, Getafe's goalkeeper, saved Dani Olmo's shot, but Jules Koundé added a third in the 73rd minute from a short corner and a Lamine Yamal cross. Getafe gave Barça the opening they wanted. The corner was the better sign: a rehearsed move against a defence that had spent the evening without the ball.

Eight wins from eight equal the club record for a league start. Barça's 34 goals at this point have been bettered only by Sevilla's 41 in 1940/41.

Friday's club update replaced the uncertainty recorded in issue seven: Raphinha picked up a minor thigh injury on international duty and would miss Getafe and Galatasaray. Flick called it “not a serious injury” and said the club had to be careful after Raphinha's injuries last season. The update also puts pressure on an attack whose shape Flick has already had to explain.

Barça won 3–0 at Camp Nou without September's La Liga Player of the Month, who scored seven goals that month. Andreas Christensen and Frenkie de Jong were also absent. Christensen remains out, with no timeline since his thigh strain against Sevilla. De Jong has completed part of training with the group, but Flick said he was not ready for a match.

The Getafe result made Raphinha's absence look manageable. Istanbul is a harder test. There is no confirmed return plan for Raphinha or De Jong, and the club has named no further match beyond Galatasaray for Raphinha. Tuesday is the limit of what the club has said. After it, Flick will have to manage the squad one update at a time.

The Femení's next five fixtures are away to Real Sociedad on 18 October, at home to Granada on 24 October, away to HB Køge on 29 October, away to Badalona Women at Palamós on 1 November, and at home to Madrid CFF on 8 November. The two home league matches are at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, Barça Atlètic's ground in Sant Joan Despí. Arsenal on 11 November is the next Camp Nou date and the only one listed there through 22 November.

A Liga F record 40,533 watched the Clásico on 4 October. That fixture did much of the selling. A crowd for a derby cannot tell the club what an ordinary Saturday against Granada or Madrid CFF would draw. The Granada match's Johan Cruyff venue may reflect the men's Clásico at Camp Nou the following evening, but the schedule gives no reason, so that remains a guess. The Arsenal match against a major European opponent will show how much interest a Champions League night can draw at Camp Nou. The club still has no Camp Nou reading for a routine league match.

Juan Ybarra had five minutes on the pitch before he scored. He came on for Orian in the 85th minute against SD Logroñés, from La Rioja, in Segunda Federación, Spain's fourth tier. In the 90th he met a cross from his Barça Atlètic teammate Tunkara for the only goal at the Estadi Johan Cruyff. It was his first for Barça. The win kept Juliano Belletti's side top of their group and preserved a clean sheet.

Ybarra was among the Atlètic and Under-19 players who trained with the first team on 23 September. Belletti and the first-team coach oversaw the joint session at the Ciutat Esportiva. Eder Aller, Max Bonfill, Shane Kluivert and Adam Argemí were there too. Bonfill and Kluivert returned on 6 October with Baba Kourouma, Jordi Pesquer, Hamza Abdelkarim and Oscar Gistau. Abdelkarim and youth player Iker Rodríguez trained with Flick's squad on 8 October.

Two issues ago Barça Atlètic kept winning during the international break. Ybarra's goal is another good afternoon for Belletti, and little more can be drawn from one match. The first-team training sessions show who is in the room. They do not show who Flick will trust when the points are at stake.

Pedro Rodríguez spent his career making himself useful without asking to be the main event. He came through La Masia and Barça B, made his first-team debut in January 2008, and retired at 39 after spells at Chelsea, Roma and Lazio. In eight seasons with Barça he made 321 appearances, scored 99 goals and won 20 major trophies, including five La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues. At the Auditori 1899 farewell, he said, “I felt I'd lost that spark. The right thing to do was to step aside.” The next day he took a ceremonial kick-off before Getafe and watched the team get on with its match.

Hours before Argentina played Benin, the University of Buenos Aires made Messi an honorary doctor, a distinction its Superior Council approved unanimously. His Argentina career took the longer road. He lost the 2014 World Cup final and the 2015 and 2016 Copa América finals, announced his retirement after the last defeat, then reversed it. The 2021 Copa América and 2022 World Cup changed the story. He left with 126 goals in 208 caps, after Argentina beat Benin 3–0 in front of more than 85,000 at the Monumental. Play stopped in the 10th minute for a standing ovation. In Rosario, his hometown, a giant No. 10 shirt bearing “Gracias” was unfurled at the National Flag Memorial.

Argentina needed a national event to say goodbye after everything Messi's international career put them through. Pedro never needed one, and the small send-off at Barça fit him.