Luis Suarez gives Barcelona, ‘sometimes too cool’ their dangerous unpredictability

Two of Luis Suarez's more conspicuous of antagonists are to face him this evening at Berlin, although the withdrawal of Giorgio Chiellini with injury from the Juventus team to face Suarez’s Barcelona reduces the number of portentous handshakes photographers must be alert to before kick off.

Luis Suarez has finally found himself in a grounded situation and has supplied Barcelona, which can be 'too cool' according to their coach Luis Enrique, with some emotional spark as well. Albert Gea /Show more

Luis Suarez has made enough foes in his career to staff a large, and talented, squad.

Two of the more conspicuous of his antagonists were to face him Saturday evening at Berlin, although the withdrawal of Giorgio Chiellini with injury from the Juventus team to face Suarez's Barcelona reduces the number of portentous handshakes photographers must be alert to before kick off.

Only the Suarez-Patrice Evra greeting will take place to a cacophony of shutters clicking.

Both players hope the agenda will shift immediately afterwards, that memories of the 2011 incident – when Suarez was found to have spoken to Evra using racially abusive language in a match between Liverpool, then Suarez’s club, and Manchester United – can be archived again.

Suarez was banned for eight matches as a result of that episode and the pair’s next meeting in a Liverpool-United fixture involved a withdrawn handshake. No gesture of that sort will be repeated in the pre-match formalities tonight.

Suarez certainly picks his battles. Evra and Chiellini, whose shoulder Suarez bit at the last World Cup to earn a long ban from all football, would rate high on any list of the game’s toughest ­defenders.

Branislav Ivanovic would probably be on that list, too. Ivanovic, of Chelsea, was bitten on the arm by Suarez in 2013, prompting another controversy and another long ban.

Suarez, 28, survives his suspensions, but they hurt him.

Unless he loses his bearings Saturday night, he can look forward, in August, to starting a domestic season without a lengthy ban to serve for the first time since 2012.

The Ivanovic incident took him out of action for a chunk of the 2013/14 season and he still ended up as the Premier League’s leading scorer.

The Chiellini clash left him without football from June until late October, but Barcelona still paid about €80 million (Dh329.9m) that summer to recruit him from Liverpool.

Barca told him the serial offending needed to stop.

The promise from player and new club were of a character determined to reform, with the lure for Suarez being titles, of which he has two so far, the league and the Copa del Rey.

Now the big one, the Uefa Champions League, a competition that Suarez felt Liverpool would not be able to take him far in if he had stayed there in his 30th year.

Suarez has behaved at Barcelona, with just six yellow cards from the 42 games he has played for them.

There have been periods of frustration, notably because goals proved hard to come by in his first two months at the club, but the symptoms of that frustration have always been muted.

Suarez has become important to Barca, his movement and direct running key to how their playing style has shifted under Luis ­Enrique.

For Enrique, they have an extra, visceral charge up front, too.

“Sometimes this team can be a bit too cool,” the coach said, describing the almost serene efficiency that the best Barcelona sides of the past six years have operated with. “Suarez gives us something a bit different.”

Suarez has been at the heart of a campaign that stuttered up until New Year. He scored three goals – only one in the league – in the two months he was eligible in 2014, but has added 21 goals in 2015.

His hard work and tireless movement means supporters appreciate him. He tracks back and has played a part in Barcelona having halted a habit of conceding loose goals from set pieces because, at opposition corners, he often defends the near post.

“Luis has reached the sort of age and had the sort of career that means he takes responsibility for what he does and has done,” said Javier Mascherano, his Barcelona teammate.

“This is a special match for him because it’s a final, not because it involves the club of Chiellini and Evra. Those things are in the past.”

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