Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi Yet to Click as Sergio Alvarez Denies Barcelona
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar should all have scored against Celta Vigo. There's no way Barcelona should have lost this game.
When they look back at the video replays which Luis Enrique will show them when they turn up for training at 11am on Sunday morning, they will know that individually they have let themselves down.
Of course, it wasn't just poor finishing. Celta Vigo goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez turned in the display of his life to keep Barcelona at bay in his side's eventual 1-0 victory.
A tremendous reaction save from a Messi-flicked effort in the first half was bettered by a full-length dive to deny a Suarez half-volley in the second.
As good as Sergio was, players of Suarez, Messi and Neymar's calibre don't chalk up an inability to score down to the quality of the opposition.
Players like these three are killing machines and only reach their level of talent with a lot of introspection and self-analysis.
Messi will be wondering why he didn't place his late free-kick an inch lower, dropping under the crossbar instead of flicking off it.
Neymar will be thinking the same about a dipping strike from distance in the first half. And then there was another in the second, with a close-range effort that he should have kept a little lower to prevent it from clipping the crossbar.
Suarez will be twice as furious. On Wednesday night in the Catalan Supercup, the ball was delivered to him in the air by Sergi Roberto.
He headed it at goal but straight at goalkeeper Pau Lopez. The chance was recreated tonight by Pedro. Thrown on as a substitute, the forward took the ball down the right and lifted it into the middle.
There was Suarez, with the Celta defence fading away. The Uruguayan headed it at goal, but again his effort was down the goalkeeper's throat.
Sergio, with the form he was in tonight, didn't need any extra help or gifts like that from Suarez.
Real Madrid usurped Barcelona at the top of the table earlier in the day, with Cristiano Ronaldo in particularly unselfish form.
Karim Benzema's work ethic has come on leaps and bounds, and with Isco, James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric working as a brilliantly cohesive unit, Real Madrid looked like a mighty force.
Barcelona, on the other hand, looked like a collection of expensively assembled individuals who didn't yet know how to work together.
This, as anyone who has followed Spanish football will know, is somewhat of a role reversal.
However, it's early days yet at Barcelona and with a strike force that possesses this much talent, it will be almost impossible for it not to flourish.
Messi and Neymar already know each other's games and when Suarez is totally comfortable, the goals will flow.
Unless, perhaps, Sergio Alvarez is involved.
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