Luis Suarez atteint la barre des 100 buts en liga avec le FC Barcelone

Luis Suarez atteint la barre des 100 buts en liga avec 

le FC Barcelone

Lors du festival du FC Barcelone sur la pelouse du Betis (0-5), luis Suarez a atteint la barre symbolique des 100 buts inscrits en Liga sous le maillot blaugrana. En seulement 3 saisons et demi, soit 114 matches de championnat, l'Uruguayen s'est fait une place de choix dans le classement des meilleurs buteurs de l'histoire du Club, à l'instar de Messi, Kubala, César et Eto’o.

C'est la première fois que le ‘charrúa’ arrive à la centaine de buts en championnat avec une équipe. À Liverpool, il avait marqué 69 buts en 110 matches de Premier League, alors qu'à l’Ajax, il avait signé 81 réalisations en 110 rencontres d'Eredivisie.

Les meilleurs souvenirs des supporteurs du Barça concerne évidemment ses buts face au Real Madrid. 'El Pistolero' a d'ailleurs marqué chaque année contre les Merengue. On se souvient aussi de ses quadruplés face au Sporting Gijón et au Deportivo La Corogne. Lors de la saison 2015/16, il parvient même à remporter le Soulier d'Or Européen et le titre de Pichichi grâce à ses 40 buts inscrits.

Cette saison, le '9' du Barça a marqué 15 buts en 17 rencontres de Liga. Lors de sa première saison, il avait marqué 16 buts en championnat, durant la 2ème 40, et la 3ème 29. Si vous faites le calcul, vous arrivez bien à 100 réalisations. Et ce n'est pas fini... Si l'on prend en compte toutes les compétitions, Suarez a inscrit 137 buts en 174 rencontres sous le maillot blaugrana. 

Australian Open: World No 1 Rafael Nadal retires hurt leaving Marin Cilic to face Kyle Edmund in semi-finals

Australian Open: World No 1 Rafael Nadal retires hurt leaving Marin Cilic to

face Kyle Edmund in

semi-finals

Rafael Nadal as won more matches here at the Australian open than at any other Grand Slam tournament except the French Open, but the injury curse which has brought him down so often in the past struck again here on Tuesday.

Nadal twice led by a set in his quarter-final against Marin cilic, but injured a hip muscle in the fourth set and was eventually forced to retire with the Croatian leading 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2, 2-0. Nadal had been hoping to reach his 27th Grand Slam semi-final, but instead it will be Cilic who will face Britain’s Kyle Edmund on Thursday.

The 31-year-old Spaniard, who was unable to play any warm-up tournaments before arriving here because he was recovering from a knee injury, admitted these were “tough moments”.

He added: “This is not the first time an opportunity has gone for me. I am a positive person, and I can be positive, but today is an opportunity lost to be in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam and to fight for an important title.

 “In this tournament this has already happened to me a couple of times in my life. I really do not want to say that it is frustrating, but it is tough to accept, especially after the tough December that I had without having a chance to start in Abu Dhabi and then Brisbane.

“I worked hard to be here. We did all the things that we believed were the right things to do to be ready. I think I was ready. I was playing OK. I was playing a match in which anything could happen: I could win or I could lose. I am being honest. He was playing well, too.

“But I was fighting for it. I was two sets to one up. I will just have to try to recover, go back home, stay with my people, and keep going. That is all. Always in the tough moments, even if it’s difficult to think this way, there are so many positive things that happened in my career.”

Barcelona rout Real Madrid to go 14 points

 

Real Madrid   0 – 3   Barcelona

Barcelona rout Real Madrid to go 14 points clear of clásico rivals in La Liga

At the beginning of the clásico, a huge banner was unfurled at the south end of the ground welcoming a “White Christmas”. At the end, it was the handful of Barcelona fans high in the opposite stand who celebrated. Way below, their players applauded back, marking a victory whose consequences will be profound: theirs will be happy holidays. Their coach, Ernesto Valverde, insisted that the league is not yet won and Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane said the same, but goals from Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal carried the Catalans 14 points ahead of their biggest rivals.

The last time these two teams met, back in August, Gerard Piqué admitted feeling inferior to Madrid. How quickly things change. Twenty-five games have passed since, Barcelona have lost none and by the close here the superiority was theirs, imposed almost by stealth, bit by bit until it was complete.

“It’s a defeat that hurts,” Zidane said. “They were sunk [in August], people said; tomorrow, we’re the ones that are ‘sunk’. We accept that, that’s football. We’re pissed off but Madrid never surrender, no matter what. People can think the league is over but I don’t think so and I don’t think the opposition coach thinks so either.”

With Valencia later losing 1-0 at home to Villarreal, Barça’s lead is up to nine points from Atlético Madrid, who had already lost, at Espanyol on Friday.

The game at the Bernabéu ended with the ball in Real’s net; it had started with the ball in Barcelona’s when Cristiano Ronaldo’s header went in off the bar only for the linesman’s flag to be raised for offside. Then Ronaldo swung and missed by the penalty spot. Ten minutes had gone and with Mateo Kovacic a surprise inclusion detailed to prevent Sergio Busquets from bringing the ball out and Messi from finding time or space the visitors had barely had possession.

“We struggled to overcome that pressure,” Valverde said, yet it also appeared they were in no hurry. They arrived with an 11-point lead over their hosts, after all, and as Valverde had warned: “It is when you think you’re on top that Madrid hit you.”

Those fears were borne out: Thomas Vermaelen brought down Luka Modric as he broke through; Ronaldo shot against Sergi Roberto and another Ronaldo effort hit goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen’s foot. Karim Benzema then hit the post from Marcelo’s cross.

For Barcelona, Paulinho had two good chances. Messi clipped a wonderful ball into the midfielder’s run and his excellent shot was pushed over by Keylor Navas after half an hour before the goalkeeper saved a near-post header. From the corner, Piqué’s header hit Dani Carvajal and Messi’s 45th-minute free-kick thudded against Ronaldo’s head. As they departed at half time, he held out a hand. When they reappeared, the visitors asserted themselves.

Madrid appeared to take a step back, symbolised by Kovacic’s shift from Busquets to Messi, although Valverde suggested that was more a consequence of his side’s improvement than a conscious decision. Andrés Iniesta released Jordi Alba, but Luis Suárez’s shot was under-hit.

A minute later Busquets turned near his own area. Stepping away from Toni Kroos, he found Ivan Rakitic. The space opened up in front of him, Kovacic heading out of his path to follow Messi, and Rakitic laid it to Sergi, who crossed for Suárez to score.

Madrid were preparing a change, Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio standing at the side of the pitch, when Barcelona doubled the lead. Messi put Suárez clear, Navas saved the first shot but Messi collected the rebound and returned it to Suárez, whose second effort came off the post to Paulinho. From his header Carvajal made a neat one-handed save. Paulinho bundled the ball over the line, but the referee blew, pulled out a red card and pointed to the spot, from where Messi thumped in the penalty.

Carvajal walked, head down and 10 minutes later, Bale and Asensio were introduced, a last attempt to break Catalan control. Messi drew another save from Navas, who also stopped Nélson Semedo. Twice more Navas denied Messi but Madrid had not given up. Ter Stegen made a fantastic save from Bale, then blocked a Sergio Ramos effort. There was still time, but it was Barcelona who used it. Messi evaded Marcelo and crossed for Vidal to score. He had been on the pitch less than a minute.

Why Barcelona pushed so hard to sign Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool in January and not the summer ?

Barcelona finally got their man after months of trying - but why were they so intent on signing him now rather than the summer?

If the feeling for many around Liverpool and Barcelona was that Philippe Coutinho’s move to Camp Nou was always inevitable there remains one big question as the saga finally comes to a close: why did the Liga leaders go so strong to do it now and not in the summer?

Why potentially irritate whom you’re doing business with? Why not look to just strike the longer-term deal? Why possibly unsettle what had seemed a sensible deal?

Moreover, this is the thing. So many do find it confusing. It was the inevitable and the obvious, yet undercut by the unclear. So why?

The first reason is obviously that Coutinho himself was desperate to go. The word from those close to him was that he “would do anything in the world to get there”. He was that intent on the deal now, and some of this is obviously Barca wanting to act on that great desire and have a future star as happy as possible.

Why Liverpool had no choice but to sell Coutinho to Barcelona

That said, those same people close to him didn't think he would literally do “anything” to get there, mind. They did not feel he would outright go on strike, despite some of the suggestions, because he would almost certainly be there by the summer either way.

That raises something about Coutinho himself, too. He isn’t a Luis Suarez personality in that way. He wouldn’t just dig in and do anything possible to get his way like the Uruguayan, although Coutinho’s wife Aine is hugely keen on the move.

Barca themselves aren’t quite in the same situation as they were when they signed Suarez in 2014. They just aren’t as flush. There is now a much greater requirement to balance the books.

While there was some talk that Liverpool should have waited until after the World Cup because Coutinho’s price might go up even more, that is then precisely what the Catalans didn’t want. They wanted to get it secured to avoid that.

Much has been made of the amount brought in from Neymar’s move to Paris-Saint-Germain but the majority of that has already gone on bringing in Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund and - much more importantly and historically - securing the future of Leo Messi.

This Coutinho deal is also about legacy in another way, as it is to bring in the ideal long-term successor to Andres Iniesta, but there is an immediacy there too. After their surge to a commanding position at the top of the Spanish table in the first half of the season, Barca now feel even more could be on and they could reclaim the Champions League this season. Coutinho is cup-tied - and the potential individual frustrations of that are another angle there - but his mere presence means Iniesta will not be used as much in what is a thin squad, and will now be fresher for continental matches.

A lot of that makes sense from a football and business perspective, then, but still not necessarily from a negotiation perspective. More than most clubs, this Liverpool hierarchy does not like the sense they’re being bullied, and justifiably dug in. The pure businessman in John W Henry is said to almost take such impositions as an affront.

If they sold, as one figure put it, it was always only going to be on their terms. Barca were always determined to change those terms and now they've got their man.