Cast aside by Ronald Koeman and Barcelona last summer, Luis Suarez is back firing at the right time

How ever next weekend’s final day plays out in La Liga Luis Suarez is guaranteed to finish the season above Barcelona in the table. He has done better without them, than they have done without him. And Atletico Madrid have been the biggest winners.Suarez’s contribution to Atletico’s victory with two minutes to spare against Osasuna on Sunday was typical of him. First came the pained expressions, as miss after miss looked like leaving him stuck on 19 goals, as he had been since March 21. Then the outpouring of emotion after he scored the 88th-minute winner.Buried beneath the bundle of celebrating Atletico players was the man who had just become the first to score 20 league goals in a season for Diego Simeone’s side since Antoine Griezmann did it in 2016.Since Atletico Madrid last won the league in 2014 with Diego Costa scoring 27 league goals, only Griezmann has been able to go through the 20-goal barrier. Last year Alvaro Morata top scored with just 12.Suarez’s 20 goals have been important ones too, worth 19 points in the table. Only Sevilla’s Youseff En-Nesyri has been able to match that in terms of being decisive in games.But it’s not just the goal-every-122-minute record that he takes into the last game of the season. Suarez has given Atletico a leadership they have lacked since that title seven years ago when they had characters like Diego Godin and Gabi in the team.Speaking about Suarez’s former club on Sunday night, ex-player Jorge D’Alessandro said: ‘Barcelona have no soul. Never mind about DNA, they need character.’Of course Barca had problems last season too but their decision to let Suarez leave chipped away another big chunk of their remaining character. When they were taken apart by Bayern Munich in last season’s Champions League it was Suarez who at least bundled his way through the German team’s defence to score.He was one of only two players to beat Manuel Neuer in Lisbon. He had stopped being the solution but he certainly wasn’t the problem.Lionel Messi’s comments earlier this year that he could not understand why the club were selling him to a rival for the title will echo around Barcelona’s Joan Gamper training ground this week as they prepare for their meaningless last game of the season.Suarez has proved he can score goals without Messi. He has formed new partnerships with Angel Correa and Marcos Llorente, bringing the best out of those two just as he arguably brought the best out of Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling while at Liverpool.Not that Llorente won’t go on to great things without Suarez, just as Sterling did, but these partnerships have shown again the capacity for Suarez to adapt to his environment and make the best of it.The classic journeyman Uruguayan footballer is always perspiration guaranteed, and with the best of them – Diego Forlan, Edinson Cavani, and Suarez – there is inspiration too. Suarez did it at Nacional in Montevideo, at Groningen and Ajax in Holland, Liverppol in England and now he has done it at both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona in Spain.It could still end in tears. An Atletico draw next weekend and a Real Madrid win would mean the title stays with Zinedine Zidane’s team. The bonus Suarez picked up for Sunday’s 20th league goal will mean little if it’s not accompanied by a winner’s medal.In a peculiar way Barcelona will be wishing him well – better he scores and Atletico win the league than Real Madrid.They have also made some money from his success, although nowhere near enough. As well as the €5million (£4.3m) they got when the move first happened, they were entitled to €2m (£1.7m) once he passed 20 games. Did they not think to add another clause for when he reached 20 goals?When he raced to 12 goals from just 18 shots at the start of the season they would already have been regretting not having been shrewder. Messi will tell them they should never have let him join a rival in the first place regardless of the payments.Suarez has failed to score against Barcelona this season. He missed the first game against them because of coronavirus and he looked over-anxious and off the pace at the Nou Camp two weeks ago. Some Barcelona supporters might even have concluded after that showing: yes, he’s finished.But he wasn’t finished. There was a least one more goal in him, and it’s the goal that leaves Atletico Madrid one win from only their second title in 25 years.