No Messi? No problem. Barcelona cruised to a crushing 5-0 victory over Sporting Gijon this past Saturday.
However, Luis Suarez wasn’t successful in steering clear of controversy, when he made an off the ball challenge on Sporting Gijon’s Fernando Amorebieta.
Controversy and Suarez are never separated for long. After he was involved in a spot of social media controversy over Barcelona’s midweek match against Atletico Madrid, he was at it again on Saturday.
In a tussle between Suarez and Gijon defender Amorebieta, the Uruguayan striker lashed out at his opponent and kicked him on the ankle with the ball nowehere in sight. Amorebieta was not happy with Suarez’s careless tackle and went up to him and told Barcelona man off.
Also Read: Sporting Gijon 0-5 Barcelona: Five Talking Points
The defender was very agitated about being fouled off the ball and was even more incensed because the referee missed the entire incident.
The fact that Suarez feigned innocence about having done anything at all further angered the Gijon player. While the Barcelona striker escaped punishment, it remains to be seen if the Spanish Football Federation will take any action against him since the incident was caught on camera.
Suarez’s latest infraction follows on the heels of his foul on Filipe Luis in their midweek match. The Atletico Madrid player uploaded a picture on Instagram of the wound that was made on his foot where Suarez had fouled him. Instead of expressing any kind of remorse or regret, Suarez reacted by saying ‘football is a man’s game’ thereby imbuing his special brand of misogyny and sexism to the incident.
While Suarez hasn’t sunk his teeth into anyone lately, he seems to have found more acceptable ways of getting back at his opponents. With a Champions League group stage clash against Borussia Monchengladbach coming up this week, maybe Suarez can make it three out of three bad tackles in one week.
Barcelona’s main man Lionel Messi is ruled out for four weeks because of yet another groin injury but that seems to have affected the team in no way. During their visit to El Molinon last Saturday, the Catalan giants put five goals past Sporting who were down to 10 men with 15 minutes of the game left to play.
One goal apiece from Luis Suarez, Rafinha, Arda Turan and a brace from Neymar made it comfortable for the Catalans and showed that they didn’t need Messi after all.
