Barcelona were in front inside three minutes and never in trouble after that. Raphinha, on his first Champions League night as the club’s first captain, opened the scoring in the 3rd minute after Yamal picked him out inside the box.

Karim Adeyemi, one of the club’s summer arrivals, doubled the lead on 22 minutes with a curling strike from distance. By the interval, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Feyenoord had been reduced to reactive defending.

Raphinha added his second in the 57th minute. Yamal’s moment came in the 77th, when he stroked a free-kick through a gap in the wall for his first goal of the competition. Sem Steijn pulled one back for the visitors in the 82nd, only for Gabriel Jesus to score two minutes after coming off the bench.

The youngest name in a new five-man group

Barcelona confirmed a new captaincy hierarchy on 5 September, with Raphinha named first captain and Pedri appointed as his deputy. Eric García, Frenkie de Jong and Yamal filled the remaining three positions through a squad vote.

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At 19, Yamal is the youngest name in that group. Were he to wear the armband at any point this season, he would become the youngest captain in Barcelona history.

Yamal had already named the Champions League as his main target for this season in comments to Barcelona’s official channels earlier in the week.

Van Bronckhorst’s first European night back

Van Bronckhorst returned to Rotterdam in June on a two-year deal, replacing Robin van Persie after the club parted ways with the former Netherlands captain three days earlier. His first European fixture in charge unfolded almost entirely without the ball.

Barcelona finished with 22 shots to Feyenoord’s six and dominated possession. Steijn’s late consolation was the only meaningful attacking moment the Dutch champions produced.

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