Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani had embraced in the tunnel before kick-off at an expectant Parc des Princes as the players of Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona prepared to troop out on to the turf. There was warmth in that meeting, compatriots and international team-mates with Uruguay renewing acquaintances, a pair of 28-year-old strikers upon whom their current employers had forked out fees totalling €145m and each relishing the platform upon which they were about to perform. Both would leave an imprint on Wednesday’s first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, though their fortunes could not have contrasted more markedly.
The memory of that night will for ever be of Suárez’s emphatic and glorious contribution, capped by the humiliation to which he subjected a fragile David Luiz. The Barça striker’s two second-half nutmegs on the centre-half were ruthless, the actions of a player who sensed his opponent was wounded and labouring, having barely recovered from the hamstring injury suffered at Marseille less than two weeks earlier. Suárez is too potent a talent to pass up such an opportunity to run riot, even if he felt compelled to offer something akin to an apology post-match for the torment he had put David Luiz through. “There was nothing else I could do,” he offered when asked about the two flicks through his opponent’s legs. “A forward has to do anything he can to get himself in front of goal. I had no choice.”
His was a breathtaking performance, in terms of the strength, poise and vicious accuracy of his finishing as well as his combination play with Neymar and Lionel Messi in that most mouth-watering of attacking triumvirates. Their interplay is instinctive already, and irrepressible as a result, with Suárez permitted to drift into a central brief even with Messi boasting 45 goals to his name this term and Neymar 28.
The Uruguayan gave a lesson in No9 play. He made selfless runs into the channels – he collected possession for his first goal on the right flank – and was forever seeking to drag Marquinhos or David Luiz, Maxwell or Gregory van der Wiel, out of their comfort zones to permit his fellow forwards space in which to revel. Such movement and industry are ideal for a side whose counterattacking is devastating.
Liverpool supporters, of course, have seen it all before and opponents up and down the Premier League have been scarred by it all too often. But this was a player seizing his opportunity to make an impression on this competition. His brace swelled his tally in the Champions League this term to six – he was eligible to play again after his ban for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup only on 26 October – and there have been 11 goals in his past 11 matches for Barcelona.
Luis Enrique spoke of his striker’s tantalising blend of physical power and technical agility, and his chemistry with Messi. The player himself has stated publicly he is committed to liberating the two more established forwards in Barça’s ranks, seeking to make life easier for them by distracting the defence. This feels the perfect fit.
Suárez had departed Merseyside hoping to claim the most glittering silverware on offer in the club game. “The clubs I’ve played for before didn’t really have the chance to win important [European] titles, maybe a domestic league or cup,” he said. “But Barcelona are always a candidate to win the Champions League.” On this evidence, he can aspire to emulate Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale by hoisting this trophy in his first campaign since leaving England.
For Cavani, the reality is grimmer. The PSG forward had rather skulked from the pitch at the end, his head bowed as if lost in thought. The player who had nodded his team level against Chelsea in the first leg of the last 16, for his sixth Champions League goal this season, had brought his spluttering domestic form on to the European stage just when PSG had pinned their hopes on his quality. In the absence of the suspended Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cavani had to excel in his favoured central role if the hosts were to prosper. Perhaps it is unfair to ask anyone to step in and supply the Swede’s charisma and quality. Yet, where David Luiz was shot physically, the forward appeared tentative psychologically.
He was too ponderous for comfort, always seeking an extra touch to be certain and, against Barça, such indecision left him blunt. There was a failure to find Javier Pastore with one early pass when the Argentinian sensed he might be free. More critical was the moment just before the half-hour with the visitors already ahead, when he gathered on the edge of the D with the goal apparently at his mercy. Yet his touch was indecisive, what should have been a shot eventually morphing into an attempt to find a team-mate, with Javier Mascherano diving in to suffocate. His one real attempt of any menace, a volley from the edge of the area, was turned aside by Marc-André ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal but that had been an instinctive effort, dispatched with no time to think. Whenever Cavani was posed with a decision, he floundered.
The locals are tiring of his toils. He is not responsible for the size of the €64m fee, and even the weekly wage package – which is apparently larger than Radamel Falcao’s – but there is exasperation that he appears a pale shadow of the player who once excelled so consistently at Napoli. Laurent Blanc had praised his player’s industry in the buildup, the expectation now that he will always deliver “12km or 13km in a game” and help close opponents down, but PSG were buying more than a runner when they splashed the Qatari cash in 2013. Cavani’s impact ever since has been underwhelming.
His manager was understandably uncomfortable with the comparisons with Suárez post-match. “They’re the same age, the same nationality and play in the same position,” Blanc said through a sigh. “But you cannot compare them. Suárez was more effective, clearly, but he was playing in a team that was dominating and enjoying all the possession, and that made it easier for him. It was far harder for Edinson because we never controlled the ball well enough.” That much was true, but this had been Cavani’s stage and he had merely shrunk in the limelight.
L’Equipe awarded PSG’s Uruguayan a paltry three out of 10 in Thursday’s edition, their joint-lowest mark, while lavishing Barcelona’s with their highest, an eight. Cavani was never closer to his compatriot than in that pre-match hug. Thereafter, their evenings veered apart.
