Suarez Presence At Barcelona Not Much Of A Presence

Life tough seeming tough for Luis Suarez. The Barca striker wasted the best opportunity of the match and endured another frustrating night in front of the goal posts for Barcelona. And six months on from his big summer signing, he is still struggling to live up to his €81 million price tag.

Suarez sat out the first months of this season due to his ban for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup and only made his first Barcelona appearence back in late October and he assisted Neymar for his side’s only goal in the 3-1 Clasico defeat at Real Madrid.

Since then, the aggresively hungry for goals forward has added eight more assists, but has just five goals so far for his new club in 16 matches and only two in 11 appearances in La Liga.

Coach Luis Enrique picked the same side bar goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, keeping faith with the outfield players who had beaten Atleti so convincingly in La Liga (3-1) 10 days ago and then thrashed Deportivo La Coruna last weekend.

His side bristled with confidence in the opening exchanges and came close several times, but found life more difficult as the game went on.

“Every minute that passes will be crucial to our chances of getting thrrough the tie,” Diego Simeone had said before the match.

Atleti had Suarez to thank at half-time for missing a clear opportunity when he was teed up by Ivan Rakitic and sent the ball way over the bar with only Jan Oblak to beat nine minutes before the interval.

The Camp Nou crowd immediately got behind their man with chants of “Suarez, Suarez”, but the Uruguayan’s night was still going uphill in the second half when he was twice adjudged to have dived by the referee and couldn’t get into a single scoring position.

In the end, Lionel Messi’s missed penalty converted on the rebound proved the difference between the two teams and Suarez was all smiles as he celebrated with the second best player in the world, but Barca will be expecting much more from their expensive signing.

And so they should. For all his willingness and hard work, Suarez seems unsure of his role in this squad and when he has had great chances, they have more often than not been squandered.

“He has the support and the affection of the fans,” Barca president told Canal Plus after the game. “He is a great player and we have great expectations for him.”

Luis Enrique added: “We have maximus confidence in Suarez. He wasn’t lucky enough to score, but he caused their centre-backs problems and created danger. I’m certain he will score goals.”

That is of course the idea and with Barcelona back to winning ways in recent games, the pressure is now off slightly for the young striker. However, the jury is still out on the Catalans’ €81m investment and in order to keep the fans and press on his side, the Uruguayan had better start putting the ball at the back of the net.