Barcelona edged ever so close to yet another La Liga title after comfortably getting past Alaves. Goals from Carles Alena and Luis Suarez in the second half were enough to bag all three points at the Mendizorroza.
The result means the Catalans could be crowned champions as early as Wednesday night, depending on whether Atletico Madrid are defeated by Valencia.
Ernesto Valverde benched Lionel Messi but Suarez ensured that there was no shortage of leadership in the front, as he helped the Spanish giants to a crucial win.
We take a deeper look at Suarez’s performance.
KEY-STATS
Minutes: 90
Goals: 1
Assists: 0
Shots (On target): 3 (3)
Passes (Success rate): 26 (81%)
Dribbles: 1
Key-passes: 1
Dispossessed: 1
30-SECOND REPORT
The shortest summary of Suarez’s performance would be that he had a very Suarez performance. The Uruguayan started slow, missed a couple of easy chances but eventually got on the score-sheet to glorify an otherwise average show.
As always, his positioning and link-up play – apart from a few terribly misplaced passes – helped Barcelona build up to the final third in a neat way. But the Uruguayan never seemed to get it right in the final third.
Eventually Suarez slotted home a perfectly taken penalty and scored Barcelona’s insurance goal.
JUST LIKE THAT IT'S TWO!!!
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 23, 2019
Min 60: 0-2 @LuisSuarez9 on the spot
🔵🔴 #AlavésBarça pic.twitter.com/SEVm576I0g
GOT RIGHT – Positional awareness
It’s worth noting that this ‘typical Suarez performance’ saw a typical Suarez moment when the forward dummied Sergi Roberto’s pass to Alena to provide enough space for the youngster by dragging two defenders with him.
Minor movements like these which usually go unnoticed deserve as much plaudits as the pass that led to the goal and the Uruguayan deserves the credit for helping Barcelona break the deadlock.
GOT WRONG – Conversion
Suarez has been far from his best in terms of conversion in the past few months but calling out his shortcomings in front of goal in this game wouldn’t be right. The Uruguayan got the job done against Alaves but if one were to nitpick, the conversion factor does pop up as the area begging for improvement.
Barcelona could have been ahead in the opening stages of the game had he converted two great chances created by Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.
Luis Suarez.
VERDICT
Whether he does it by latching onto one pass out of every 10 provided by Messi in the final third or by slotting home a penalty after an average performance, Suarez has kept his meter ticking in the goal-scoring charts.
While this was certainly not one of his better performances, the Uruguayan did play a part in both the goals and helped the Catalans secure three important points.
Credit when due, the forward did a great job leading the line in the absence of Messi and getting the job done via personal intervention.
Although, he does need to work on converting his chances, especially with a massive Champions League fixture looming next week.
RATING: 7/10
