Children spilt out of school into the sunshine on Barcelona’s Carrer Valencia on Monday afternoon, the day after Barca defeated Valencia 4-2 to remain two points behind Real Madrid, who have a game in hand, at the top of the Primera Liga.
While they had been at school, a huge five-storey image of Neymar had gone up, covering a building in Barcelona’s central Eixample district.
Children marvelled at their new neighbour and sang Neymar songs, while mimicking his celebrations. Like Paul Pogba at Manchester United, he is hugely popular with children, who love his dancing, tricks, smiles and dribbles.
Neymar is a global star in his own right and is expected eventually to supersede Lionel Messi as Barca’s greatest player. With eight league goals, the Brazilian does not trouble the top 10 goalscorers in the league – led by 25-goal Messi and followed by 21-goal Luis Suarez – yet Neymar remains vital to Barcelona.
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■ In pictures: Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez on target in Barcelona's 4-2 win over Valencia
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No player has made more assists than the former Santos player in any of Europe’s top five leagues this season. He has set up 12 league goals and a further 13 in cup competitions, including two each in his last two games, the 6-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain and the victory over Valencia.
The first against Valencia, for Suarez, came about through the Brazilian’s quick thinking from a throw-in which led to the equaliser. The second came after he sprinted almost the full length of the pitch from the edge of his own area to set up Andre Gomes for a tap in.
Neymar was absent through injury for the defeat at Deportivo La Coruna the previous week.
Neymar’s play is a joy to watch, his inclination to run at – and past – players a pure form of entertainment. He has attempted an astonishing 236 dribbles in 23 league games this season – 85 more than his nearest challenger. That is an average of 10 attempted dribbles per game, or one every nine minutes.
He brings excitement, usually cutting in from the left as he attempts to provide the bullets for Messi and Neymar to shoot.
Neymar only turned 25 last month, yet he has already played 75 times for Brazil and scored 52 goals. He will add to those appearances in the next two weeks with tough South American qualification games for the 2018 World Cup against Uruguay in Montevideo on Friday and at home to Paraguay next Wednesday.
Then he will back in Barcelona for April, where the team will play Sevilla at home, Real Madrid away, plus Juventus in two Uefa Champions League quarter-final matches.
He has played 176 games for Barcelona, scoring 99 goals and setting up 76 for others. His statistics would be remarkable if they were not dwarfed by the freakish stats associated with the goals of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Suarez.
Neymar is also remarkably consistent, playing between 47 and 60 games in club football for the past seven seasons.
His game has improved; he appears content to respect Messi’s superior standing and he is never at the centre of any player discontent.
Neymar was not happy when he was regularly substituted a couple of years ago, but Luis Enrique found a solution: play him for 90 minutes for the majority of matches.
Neymar is popular inside the dressing room where he is considered “an original Brazilian” – that is one always joking, always playing and always smiling, like Ronaldinho did. Fortunately for Barca, he is more settled domestically than Ronaldinho and does not share his love of the nightlife.
While Neymar’s football is going well, he faces more complications off the pitch with his tax issues.
Though the player is said to be relaxed about the situation, prosecutors have pushed for a prison sentence and multimillion dollar fine in relation to alleged corruption over contracts signed in 2011 and 2013 surrounding his transfer from Santos to Barcelona. He did win an appeal against other charges brought by Brazilian prosecutors, with a fine for tax fraud halved.
It is a shame that his tax affairs have distracted from a quite remarkable talent.
Atletico Madrid coming to the boil at just the right time
Though Diego Simeone is reluctant to say it, Atletico Madrid were happy to draw Leicester City in the last eight of the Uefa Champions League, avoiding heavyweights Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Monaco and Bayern Munich.
Atletico hope to reach a third Champions League final in four years in June and Simeone says he is motivated by the painful memories of those two final defeats to Real Madrid.
“Every time the Champions League hymn plays I’m in pain,” Simeone told Onda Cero Radio. “But that pain is our greatest strength to go on and try to win it.”
Leicester’s surprise victory over Sevilla prevented four Spanish clubs reaching the last eight for the first time. Move than 2,600 Leicester fans will pay £61 (Dh279) per ticket to be at the Vicente Calderon for the first leg on April 12 hoping for another shock. There were far fewer Sevilla fans there on Sunday to see their team lose a second successive game following their 2-1 defeat in Leicester last week.
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■ Diego Forlan: In Griezmann, Atletico Madrid have the quality to win the Champions League
■ Primera Liga in focus: Antoine Griezmann ready-made for Manchester United if Atletico cash in
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Atletico looked convincing in a 3-1 win which put them within two points of Sevilla in third place in the league. With Villarreal losing at Las Palmas, who will part company with their impressive manager Quique Setien in the summer following a breakdown in his relationship with the club hierarchy, Atletico have a seven-point cushion over Villarreal in fifth.
Antoine Griezmann’s 60th minute free kick which put his side 2-0 up was one of the best goals of the weekend, while Fernando Torres again showed his value to Atletico when he replaced Kevin Gamiero. Torres, who turned 33 on Monday, is out of contract in June but has featured in 31 games so far this season, scoring seven times.
“Fernando is here because I wanted him here,” said Simeone on why he brought the Spanish centre-forward back in 2016. “I called him and I said you are not coming back as a hero and idol, you are coming back because we need you for the type of player you are. Of course he is an idol – 50,000 came to the stadium when he re-signed, only an idol can do that – but I wanted Fernando the player.
“And Griezmann is intelligent. I don’t have to talk too much to him because he understands everything so quickly.”
Whether both of the crowd favourites will be playing for Atletico next season is doubtful. Atletico’s president, Enrique Cerezo, laughed off talk about giving Torres a new contract by claiming that he was trying to sign Lionel Messi instead. He also described Manchester United as a “small club” when they were linked to Griezmann.
While Sevilla looked depressed, Atletico Madrid are coming to the boil at just the right time. Attention is on their forwards, but in Jan Oblak they have the goalkeeper with the best save percentage in all competitions this season. They are in safe hands.
Player of the week
Neymar
Barcelona played a lopsided 3-4-3 formation which left gaps for Valencia to expose, but their famed front three, with Neymar the best, were sublime. The three up front are not a problem, but it will be interesting to see if Barca play three at the back against Madrid next month.
Game of the week
With a two-week break for international football, attention shifts to Spain hosting Israel at Gijon’s El Molinon in a 2018 World Cup qualifier on Friday. And also to the second division, where fifth-place Real Oviedo at home to second place Girona the biggest game.
What else?
■ Iago Aspas, a Celta Vigo hero and local boy, stood in front of the home end at their greatest rivals Deportivo La Coruna. He had just scored the only goal of the Galician derby in the 74th minute. His work was done. He didn't need to gloat; instead he just stood there facing the fans who despise him ... which annoyed them even more. It was a much needed win for out-of-sorts Celta.
■ Sporting Gijon scored three goals in six minutes in their game against fellow relegation rivals Granada, coming from behind to win 3-1. Sporting are still five points from safety and Leganes in 17th, but they have 10 games to close the gap and this win was a positive start.
■ Real Madrid won at Athletic Bilbao to inflict only the Basques' second home defeat of the season. It is the kind of victory that wins championships, and Madrid are the most in-form team in the league, with a two-point lead at the top and a game in hand over Barcelona. Athletic hope to close the four-point gap to neighbours Real Sociedad in sixth and get that final European spot. Alaves' win over La Real 1-0 in a Basque derby helped their cause.
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