SUAREZ BRINGS HOSTS BACK DOWN TO EARTH
HIS LaST two World Cups ended in disgrace and, where Luis Suarez is concerned, you should never rule out the chance of a hat-trick.
exactly how he might follow the deliberate handball in South africa and the bite on Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini in Brazil is anybody’s guess at this stage.
or, perhaps, at the age of 31, it is time to focus on what he does best as he did here, inspiring uruguay to their best display of the tournament. With it, they brought the hosts down to earth with a bump in the city where russia’s space programme is based and clinched top spot in Group a.
uruguay looked like a team starting to find their rhythm and they crushed the home crowd.
‘In the first few matches you’re tense,’ said Suarez. ‘you don’t want to lose and one mistake can be expensive. Here, we had a different attitude and perspective and that made it better.’
Suarez struck with a free-kick after only 10 minutes and uruguay stretched their lead with an own goal by Denis Cheryshev. edinson Cavani added the third in the final seconds to become the second uruguayan to score in three World Cups. The first was Suarez.
russia played for almost an hour with 10 men after Igor Smolnikov collected two yellow cards in nine first-half minutes.
The full back will miss the last-16 tie against Spain on Sunday and his boss Stanislav Cherchesov kicked the water bucket in frustration.
as runners-up in the group, they may find solace in a return to the Luzhniki in Moscow, where they beat Saudi arabia 5-0. uruguay will go to Sochi and in good shape, growing into the competition. They were solid at the back even without injured defender Jose Gimenez. They are yet to concede and have a pleasing balance to the team.
‘ Balance is the Holy Grail of football,’ said boss oscar Tabarez. ‘Whatever happens we have solutions for that specific problem.’
In Suarez and Cavani they have goal power, with rodrigo Bentancur of Juventus roaming at the tip of a midfield diamond against russia.
arsenal target Lucas Torreira dictated play with style and vision, deep in midfield, with Matias Vecino and nahitan nandez impressive on either side.
Vecino of Inter Milan is among those admired by Maurizio Sarri and on a list of Italian-based players he would like to follow him to Chelsea. Diego Laxalt caught the eye with his adventure at left back.
russia started badly and continued in careless fashion until the game was beyond their reach.
Suarez struck after 10 minutes and Cheryshev diverted Laxalt’s drive into his own net before the russian was sacrificed to bolster the defence in the absence of Smolnikov.
russia improved with 10 men and produced a spirited second-half display. akinfeev made a terrific save from Cristian rodriguez and another to deny Diego Godin from the resulting corner, but he could not stop Cavani pouncing on the loose ball for his first of the finals.
The russian crowd groaned but Cherchesov was not completely downcast. ‘even when we had 10 on the pitch, they were running hard and wanted to attack more,’ he said. ‘That’s why I brought on a substitute. Psychologically, we are well prepared for the next games.’
How quickly moods shift as uruguay and their star strikers start to move with menace.