Luis Suarez scored a pair of goals to help give Barcelona a 0-3 win over Real Madrid in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal on Wednesday night at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, sending the Catalonians to the Final with a 1-4 win on aggregate.
The Uruguay star was similarly ruthless in their last La Liga meeting, netting three times in a 5-1 win at Camp Nou in October that spelled the end for Julen Lopetegui’s time in charge of Madrid.
Indeed, Suarez has scored 11 times against Madrid in all competitions, more than he has against any other team while playing for Barca.
Barca seemed to relish their role as Real’s tormentors and Suarez took the ball from usual penalty taker Lionel Messi to complete their fourth victory in five visits to the Bernabeu with an ice-cool finish from the spot.
Perhaps the groundwork for this Barcelona win was laid last weekend when the Uruguayan broke his goal-less spell with an inconsequential stoppage time score in Sevilla.
Whether that served as the trigger is debatable, but what is certain is that Suarez is back to his goal-scoring ways and that bodes well for Barcelona’s final months of the season.
Suarez will earn the headlines, but also credit must go to goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who was flawless in net and kept the Barcelona net clean when Real were bombarding the area for the first hour.