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Barcelona face Espanyol on Sunday afternoon in a city derby with two teams at very different ends of La Liga’s spectrum. Espanyol were promoted in the summer and find themselves in 17th place after 20 matches.

Meanwhile, the Blaugrana top the table and look well placed to win the league this season. Should they manage to do so then Raphinha will have played a big part.

After his arrival from Leeds United, Raphinha faced endless hurdles to prove himself at Barcelona, with some people seemingly not wanting him to. Now he’s used his experience at Leeds United, and playing against Manchester United to explain why Sunday’s derby is sill huge despite the differing fortunes of the Catalan clubs.

When asked by El Pais if the derby is somewhat diluted because of all that, Raphinha said: “In derbies, after everything you’ve experienced, it doesn’t matter if one team is fighting for relegation and the other for the league. In England, for example, Leeds against Manchester United is like a historic derby. And we gave them a lot of work. They had to run a lot more than they expected.”

Raphinha was also asked about any such matches he’d played in Brazil and his experience there was somewhat more violent than in England or Spain: “The ones on the street, those are really spicy. When you’re a kid and you live in a favela, you get used to seeing people with guns. And there are fans who go to games with guns. They try to scare you so that their team wins. One time, as kids, we were in the locker room and they started banging on our door. “If you win, you’re not leaving here,” they shouted at us. We lost, but because they were much better.”

The 27-year-old has built himself into a main man since his move from Leeds United to Barcelona, and absolutely deserves the glorious stage of his career he’s found himself in.

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