PSG's Champions League battle vs. Barcelona pits familiar foes against each other
PARIS -- At the top of Spanish soccer, the hat-trick has come to seem a little less special in the era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Ronaldo has two already this season, the 24th and 25th of his five years and two months in La Liga. Messi once scored eight hat-tricks in a single Barcelona campaign. In that context, three goals in an evening’s work hardly seems a trick at all.
Nevertheless, for the footballer designated to be the sport’s figurehead in the distant time ahead when the two great duelers have eased up, Neymar, a trio of goals in Barcelona’s 6-0 win over Granada Saturday was a landmark. It was the Brazilian’s first hat-trick in La Liga, and confirmation that most of the doubts which trailed him into the new season can be put aside.
The doubts were real. Neymar spent much of the summer recovering from the back injury he sustained in the brutal World Cup quarter-final between Brazil and Colombia. Besides that painful physical setback, there was the potential psychological fatigue from the tournament: So much pressure on one young man from a host nation neurotically aware their team carried fundamental flaws and had just one player, Neymar whose brilliance might compensate for the frailties.
Neymar has had to carry several burdens through 2014. On Wednesday, his father will give evidence before a judge in Catalonia concerning details of the player’s transfer from Santos to Barcelona in June 2013, following revelations that the sums initially declared by the Spanish club were inaccurate.
Yet Neymar Jr.’s composure, and capacity to isolate himself from background noise has impressed Barcelona’s management.
“Coming to a new league can be hard for anybody in the first year,” said Luis Enrique, the club’s head coach.
“You judge great players by their hard work, day to day, their desire and their capacity to adapt, and we know Neymar will not let us down in any of that,” added Andoni Zubizarreta, the director of soccer.
The ‘capacity to adapt’ is key, not only for a 22-year-old moving across the Atlantic, but for any attacking player arriving at Camp Nou to work in tandem with Messi. As a partner, the Argentinian can be a wonderful blessing, but there is a substantial list of high-profile players who have found dovetailing with Messi meant compromising their own styles and roles to an uncomfortable degree.
In 2007-08, Thierry Henry used to complain at being pushed to flank when he was part of a Barcelona forward line in which Messi established his superstar qualities; in 2009-10, Zlatan Ibrahimovic grumbled about conceding status to Messi and left the club.
Neymar and Messi work as a tandem, most of the time. The Argentinian set up four of the Brazilian’s six goals from 2014-15 so far, and the pair of them represent a taxing challenge Tuesday in the Champions League for a Paris Saint-Germain whose defense is weakened by injury to Thiago Silva. Lately, PSG, who are fourth in France's Ligue 1, have been too penetrable for the liking of Laurent Blanc, their head coach. “Against Neymar and Messi we have an excellent opportunity to get back to most efficient at the back,” said Blanc, who will also be without the injured Ibrahimovic.
Blanc was once a most admired defender, one who combined authority at the back with proactive, attacking instincts. Which was partly why, in the late 1990s, Barcelona recruited him. Defenders at Barcelona have always been expected to know how to push high up the field, feel comfortable with the ball at their feet.
Blanc, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, did that. David Luiz, who will have the responsibility of policing Neymar and Messi at the Parc des Princes, also has some of those all-round qualities, and is a useful goalscorer. Barcelona were interested in signing him when he played for Chelsea, but were auctioned out of the market when PSG, bidding close to $65m, made Luiz the most expensive defender in soccer history in June.
It is a vast sum to invest on a player described by Jose Mourinho, who sanctioned his departure from Chelsea, as “not a regular first-choice for us, especially as a central defender.” It seemed even more vast on the July night Luiz came under as much scrutiny as Neymar at the World Cup, in Brazil's semi-final against Germany. No player shouldered more blame in the mortifying 7-1 loss, caught out of position several times, left helpless.
Ahead of that match, Luiz held up a photograph of Neymar -- who was absent with the back problem -- almost as if it might be an amulet, to protect a nervous Brazil. At the Parc des Princes Tuesday, he will get up close to the real thing, his friend and compatriot, and must anticipate a close examination from of global broadcast audience of how he, Luiz, measures up to Neymar and Messi and to his €50m valuation.
That sum was too high an ask for Barcelona, who currently have no regrets at all that they missed out on the world’s most costly defender. Barca's defense is doing fine: It is yet to concede any goals at all in La Liga, or in the Champions League.
