For a footballer who plays the game with such beauty, Raphinha has always struck me as less of a lover than a fighter. Rapha is pure jogo bonito, but his embarrassment of defenders seems inspired more by an intense inner fury than a playful joy. Judging by the last two years, the season of St Valentine does nothing to change that.

Spare a thought, then, for Natalia Belloli, who has to figure out what to buy to cheer her husband up every Valentine’s Day. Last year, Raphinha was in a big grump, stropping after being subbed off at half-time in Leeds’ 3-0 defeat at Everton two days earlier. This year, romance was ruined by reports his new club Barcelona are being investigated by prosecutors for three payments totalling £1.2m to a company owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, who was vice president of Spanish football’s refereeing committee at the time.

On both occasions, Rapha’s next opponents were those lot in red shirts from Salford. On both occasions, Rapha proved he’s much better when he’s pissed off.

After wasting his best goals in pre-season friendlies, Raphinha is finally back in the groove after a slow start at Barcelona. He’s been helped by an injury to Ousemane Dembele, who was keeping Rapha out of his favoured position on the right wing. In the three La Liga fixtures since Dembele injured his hamstring, Raphinha has two goals and an assist, but Thursday’s Europa League (lol) clash with Scum might be the night Barca supporters started to truly appreciate the angry little wizard who was signed amid so much hype.

He almost opened the scoring in the second half, snapping a vicious half volley just wide, before settling for an assist a few minutes later when his corner was headed in by Marcos Alonso. Marcus Rashford equalised, and a Jules Kounde own goal gave Scum the lead, which only wound Rapha further up. As if remembering David de Gea’s flapping at Rodrigo’s miss-hit cross at Elland Road last season, he arced a ball across goal — Robert Lewandowski failed to make contact, De Gea didn’t bother moving, and it nestled into the bottom corner. Did he mean it? Judging by the way he looked like he wanted to fight the teammates who tried to celebrate with him, I’m convinced he did.

What a game this is! ????

That was clever from Raphinha ????#UEL pic.twitter.com/AVgexwxA2b

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 16, 2023

His contribution means only Lewandowski has more combined goals and assists for Barcelona this season. For a player who is supposed to be having a slow season, he averages a goal or assist every 104.5 minutes.

Rapha almost stole a winner, frightening Luke Shaw into a panicked header back to De Gea, but failing to loft his own header over the ‘keeper. Despite having his most threatening game in a Barcelona shirt, he was soon subbed off by Xavi. The change was booed by the same fans in the Camp Nou who were previously so underwhelmed by their new signing. Rapha took the decision as well as he took being replaced at half-time at Goodison Park last year, turning the chair in front of him in the dugout into a punchbag. Marcos Alonso sat there pretending he didn’t know anything was going on behind him.

???? El enfado de Raphinha en el banquillo y Jordi Alba intentando calmarlo. pic.twitter.com/a1AoofWo7p

— Iniestazo (@INIE8TAZO) February 16, 2023

Raphinha apologised after the game, but Xavi liked what he saw and asked Rapha to talk dirty to him more often:

“What would be fucked up would be if Raphinha felt good about the change. He wants to play and participate and that’s very positive. I think it’s perfect and I always tell the players that they have to get angry. Lack of attitude and bad manners seem wrong to me, but getting angry about it… they can even insult me if they want to.”

It was a night of spooky similarities in Leeds. On the same day Raphinha threw a tantrum at Everton in 2022, Leeds Rhinos began their rugby league season with an unlucky defeat to Warrington Wolves. Leeds started their 2023 campaign on Thursday night with another opener against Warrington ahead of another trip to the blue half of Merseyside for United. The Rhinos were taken apart this time, trailing 30-0 at the break as they lost 42-10. I’m taking it as a good sign. The Rhinos have used up all the bad vibes so this time United can prosper, Raphinha can rage, and Everton can lose. ⬢