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Football can sometimes be very mean. He breaks one of the best stories.
Inter Milan plays twice against FC Barcelona this autumn within two weeks. 14 days ago in Barcelona (2: 0), today (9 pm, TV: DAZN, live ticker SPIEGEL ONLINE) in San Siro. And right before these duels Barça superstar Lionel Messi breaks his forearm.
It would have been such a beautiful story: FC Barcelona, led by Lionel Messi, born in Rosario, Argentina, and Inter Milan on the pitch led by Mauro Icardi, born in Rosario, Argentina.
For today's return match, the Catalans have at least left a back door open. Messi is at least once again in the squad, for the starting eleven, however, it should not be enough. At most as a joker, if it is tight for the guests, he is scheduled according to the Spanish media. So Icardi must first represent the colors of Rosario alone on the field.
That he will do so worthy of it, given its current form, there is little doubt. The 25-year-old Inter captain has earned a kind of heroic status in San Siro in his five years in Milan, 104 league goals have contributed, but that's not all alone. The fact that he has withstood all the transient misdeeds, even the taunts of Real Madrid and Juventus, has made him the darling of Milan's Tifosi.
Icardi: twice top scorer
The upsurge of the black-blue after dull Series A years has a lot to do with the name Icardi. The Argentinian is a real striker, twice he was top scorer in Italy. However, he is not one who waits only in the penalty area for his teammates to serve him with assists. Icardi ackert, he offers himself, he has the feel for pass and walk ways, which makes an attacker so extraordinary.
In the current season, he has met eight times in six times already in the Champions League, so far two goals in three games added, only once he remained completely unaffected and ineffectual: In the first leg in Barcelona, he saw against the Catalan defense no country.
Suárez: The biter has become a ripper
It was a game in which the Barça offensive practiced their emancipation from Messi. As long as the unrestricted king is out of the square, Luis Suárez takes over the role of the defense scare. Against Inter, he prepared the 1-0 lead before, against Real Madrid he scored three times in the league, in the scorer list of the Primera División enthroned the man from Uruguay at the top.
Suárez is now 31 years old, for ten years he plays on a high, sometimes highest level, there were years in which to limit this compliment to the purely sporty. His sportsmanship, his routines in the national team and the Premier League are already a piece of football history.
Since he is one of the favorites of FC Barcelona, there is another Luis Suárez. The Bad Boy has become a Good Boy, the Biter a ripper, his three goals in Clásico (5: 1), he celebrated with a T-shirt, on which the newborn baby of the family Suárez was seen. Suaréz recognizes the special role of Lionel Messi in the club, but he enjoys it even if the superstar does not take him the space and fame. Time again. That is legitimate.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Mauro Icardi vs. Luis Suarez
Both players have had a direct hand in two goals in the Champions League this season - Which striker do you think will leave the lasting impact when Inter host Barcelona?
Full match preview - https://t.co/ar4t8d62Y0 pic.twitter.com/H2Tkq3iAP1
Suárez and Icardi - these are quite different types. The man from Uruguay is even more agile, avoids the wings more often, is even more unpredictable. Icardi is also completely submerged once for a quarter of an hour and is then at the right moment to the spot - as in the Champions League victory over Tottenham (2: 1) to kick off the group stage when he turned the game with his equalizer.
Suárez is the record scorer of his home country, Icardi has only four internationals. In the nomination of the Argentine World Cup squad in the summer, he was deliberately overlooked as the top scorer of Serie A, on the offensive was only for a player from Rosario place, and his name was not Mauro Icardi. The relationship between the national team and the inter-attacker has been nothing more than an affair.
Icardi moved from Barcelona to Italy
After the failed World Cup, Lionel Messi has just taken a break from the national team, now Icardis chance has come. Like Suarez in the club, he also gets his opportunity to shine, because Messi is not there. "Mauro Icardi will be Argentina's striker in the future," says his advisor. However, this is also biased in several ways. Wanda Nara not only advises Icardi, she is also his wife.
It could well have been that Suárez and Icardi play side by side tonight. The Argentine came to Spain as a child because his parents left home because of the economic crisis in the country. The dream of little Mauro Icardi: Play at FC Barcelona someday. At 15, the dream seemed to come true. The youngster moved to the famous Catalan junior academy, but at FC Barcelona they did not want a striker of the Icardi brand back then. The coach was Josep Guardiola, and he had and has other ideas about the offensive game.
Icardi moved to Italy in frustration. If in the evening Icardi goals decide the game against his old youth club, then it would still be a good football history in the end.