Barcelona duo land perfect 10 ratings in La Liga Team of the Week
Luis Suarez’s league drought lasted all of three games. It was his longest barren spell all season. That’s quickly been forgotten about now, mind. The Barcelona No.9 has now scored four goals in each of his last two outings and he is now looking to etch his name in football history.
His consecutive four-goal haul, the latest coming in a 6-0 home win over Sporting Gijon, means Suarez has now scored 34 goals in the league this season. He is two clear of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (32) in the race for the Golden Shoe. He needs six more from the remaining three games of the season to become only the fifth player since World War II to score 40 goals in a single league campaign across Europe’s top leagues.
It’s a feat Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have already achieved six times between them since 2009. However, you’d have to go back to the 1971/72 campaign in Germany when Gerd Muller managed 40 league goals for Bayern Munich and a further 11 years before when Jimmy Greaves became the first player to break the 40-goal mark after WW2 (41 goals).
Barcelona’s remaining fixtures are also kind to the Uruguayan. The La Liga leaders have to face Real Betis, Espanyol and Granada in their last three matches. None of those are top-half teams. Suarez, however, only has two goals in the reverse fixtures against those teams in the reverse fixtures earlier this season. It looks unlikely, but you can’t write him off having scored eight in his last two.
Nevertheless, the 29-year-old is still in pole position to become the first player to win the Pichichi race (La Liga top goalscorer) that isn’t Messi or Ronaldo since Diego Forlan achieved the feat in 2008-09.
Suarez may have stolen the headlines at the weekend, but Messi also finished the round with a perfect WhoScored.com 10 rating. The Argentina international has now scored in three straight matches having previously gone five without a goal in all competitions. Not only that, but Messi also registered an assist in the rout over Sporting.
