Suarez's 'most important' winner against Real could be the defining moment in La Liga title race

Madrid: Luis Suarez momentarily glanced back as he hared forward, his eyes simultaneously tracking the trajectory of Dani Alves’ gloriously flighted ball, into the space that had emerged between Real Madrid’s centre-backs, Pepe and Sergio Ramos. A gorgeous cushioned first touch, with the outside of his right foot, greeted the ball’s return to the playing surface, but it also took the Uruguayan out of his path, diverting him right of centre. [caption id=“attachment_2167735” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Luis Suarez of Barcelona celebrates as he scores their second goal against Real Madrid. Getty[/caption] With Iker Casillas advancing off his line and Pepe shifting toward the right, the possibilities seemed to dwindle, momentarily, for the striker as the angle grew increasingly narrower. But that mattered little. If the Uruguayan’s first touch was all about magisterial elegance and technical perfection, his second, an unerring guided effort into the far-left corner beyond Casillas, was one of instinct and intuition, a sumptuous predator’s flash to push the pendulum back into Barcelona’s favour. That was where the pendulum would remain for the ensuing 36 minutes, with Suarez’s coup de grace allowing Barca to exact revenge for their 3-1 reverse at the Bernabeu in October and helping the Catalan club to extend their advantage at the top of the La Liga table to four points, with only 10 matches remaining. Suarez’s nascent Barcelona career up to date has, somewhat curiously albeit entirely coincidentally, been book-ended by Clasicos. His maiden official outing in red and blue, after the fulfilment of his four-month suspension, came at the Bernabeu, where he made an instant impact by grabbing an assist after only four minutes. However, that appearance ended in both personal and collective disappointment – Suarez was substituted in the second half and Barca ended up losing. Having been primus inter pares during his prolific tenure at Liverpool, Suarez was now third in line in Barca’s outrageously star-studded attack, paying deference to both Lionel Messi and Neymar. Despite being backed constantly by coach Luis Enrique and his team-mates, Suarez nevertheless still toiled in front of goal, requiring 577 minutes to break his La Liga duck. However, that slow-burning ember which was sparked at the Bernabeu in the autumn has transformed into a raging wildfire in spring, with his goal at the Camp Nou – “the most important I have scored with Barca,” he said after the match - the latest in a rapidly expanding collection. Suarez now has seven goals in his last seven matches, 14 in all this term, his worth to Luis Enrique’s side more and more evident with each passing appearance. His alliance with fellow South American superstars Messi and Neymar – now known as ‘MSN’ – has yielded 83 goals in all competitions, five more than the tally attained by Madrid’s very own initialised ‘BBC’ triumvirate of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo. The spectacle at the Camp Nou, the 230th official meeting between Spain’s biggest clubs, was centred on the tridents at either end of the field, the contest deemed in many quarters as a battle for supremacy between two expensively-assembled attacking chimeras. Barca struck first – Suarez won the foul and Messi struck the resulting free-kick which teed up Jeremy Mathieu’s headed opener - but the BBC began their transmission shortly after the half-hour mark, with Benzema’s exquisite backheel and Ronaldo’s stabbed finish capping a fine team move to attain parity for the visitors. Madrid, now in the ascendancy, found the back of the net once again, only to see the linesman rule out Bale’s effort due to an offside Ronaldo’s involvement in the build-up. That moment of officiating would prove pivotal. Eleven minutes after the interval, Alves, situated just inside his own half, looked up and swung back his right foot. At the same time, his Uruguayan colleague glanced over his shoulder. What followed over the ensuing five seconds should not have surprised anyone – and it might just have provided the defining moment in this season’s La Liga title race.