Fermín's Redemption and Raphinha's Hat-Trick at Sánchez Pizjuán

At the Sánchez Pizjuán, the final whistle brought more than just relief for the visitors. It brought release.

Fermín, back on home soil and back in the spotlight, walked off with a grin that told its own story. The three points mattered. But for him, something else burned brighter: Spain.

The La Masia product from nearby El Campillo has been recalled by Luis de la Fuente for the upcoming Nations League fixtures, a return that lands with extra force after a brutal summer. A physical setback robbed the 23-year-old of a place at the 2026 World Cup, a tournament he had been building his young career around.

He didn’t pretend it had been easy.

"I am very happy to return to the national team. It was very hard not to go to the World Cup. I have started the season well and I am happy to return to the national team," Fermín said, laying out the mix of pain and satisfaction that has defined his last few months.

On this night, though, his personal redemption arc ran alongside a very different kind of show.

Raphinha, the “unexpected nine”

Because the game itself? That belonged to Raphinha.

The Brazilian tore through Sevilla with a ruthless hat-trick, shredding a defence that never quite worked out where he was or what he had become. Under Hansi Flick, Raphinha has drifted away from the touchline and into the chaos of central areas, no longer just a winger but something far more dangerous.

The tweak has changed everything. Seven matches, 12 goals. He is not just scoring; he is setting the early pace for the Pichichi, and doing it from a role he never used to own.

Fermín, watching it unfold from midfield, could only applaud the transformation.

"Raphinha is our unexpected number nine. It’s tremendous what Raphinha is doing. He is very good and he adapts to any position. We give him the passes and he scores the goals. He had never played as a center forward and he is putting up very good numbers,” he noted, summing up a shift that has turned a wide forward into the side’s most lethal finisher.

The description fits what the pitch showed: a winger reborn as a penalty-box predator, timing his runs, finishing coldly, and carrying the attack in a stadium that rarely forgives visiting forwards.

High press, high stakes

Sevilla did what Sevilla do at home: they suffocated, snarled, and pressed. The noise rolled down from the stands, and the home side tried to ride it, throwing bodies forward and forcing mistakes.

Fermín didn’t shy away from how demanding the night had been.

“Sevilla puts a lot of pressure on us here at their stadium, and Raphinha’s three goals have been decisive. The manager asks us to be very intense, to press high after losing possession,” he revealed.

That single line captured Flick’s blueprint. Lose the ball, swarm it. Don’t retreat, attack. The visitors tried to mirror Sevilla’s ferocity with their own, hunting high up the pitch, refusing to let the game settle into a slow, controlled rhythm.

The approach carries risk, especially in a place like the Sánchez Pizjuán, where one bad touch can turn into a counterattack and one counterattack can turn into a crisis. On this night, the gamble paid off because Raphinha finished everything that mattered.

For Fermín, it was the perfect backdrop: a hostile away ground, a tactical demand for relentless intensity, a teammate in unstoppable form, and a personal call-up that closed one painful chapter and opened another.

The Nations League now awaits him. The question is simple: if this is how he plays with a point to prove, what comes next when the Spain shirt is back on his shoulders?