In a World Cup of last dances, this has the potential to be the fieriest of tangos.
Qatar 2022 was, long before it began, billed as the final curtain call on the international stage for a host of generation-defining footballers: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale, to name but a few.
But when Uruguay meet Portugal in Doha this evening, two of modern football’s great dark artists will take the floor. Luis Suarez, the 21st century’s signature World Cup super-villain, and Pepe, who in deputising for the injured Danilo will become the third-oldest outfield player ever to appear at the tournament, three months short of his 40th birthday. “He is a monster,” Portugal boss Fernando Santos said of Pepe yesterday. “He’s going to play, for sure. He’s always ready.”
Their duel, as with that between Ronaldo and Diego Godin in the other penalty box, will have a comforting, nostalgic feel to it, capable of having taken place at any tournament since South Africa in 2010.
These are two teams on the cusp of new eras but, for now, still beholden to ageing stars, one of whom you suspect would have more joy if they accelerated the transition, while the other would like to, but are not blessed with quite the same production line riches.
Through qualifying, Uruguay struggled to find the balance between the old and the new. The eventual compromise is that nine of the XI that began the last-16 win over Portugal in Russia in 2018 are still here, but only six of them in the starting line-up.
Portugal’s generational divide is less numerically stark: bar Ronaldo and Pepe, this is a squad made up entirely of outfield players either with notable promise or firmly in their prime. They could well still win this tournament, but there is a sense that we will only see the best of this squad once their greatest-ever player and, perhaps, their conservative coach moves on.
Pepe’s summons highlights their one glaring area of weakness in a lack of depth at centre-back. He has not played any competitive football since October, though old dogs scarcely forget old tricks.
It, of course, takes two to tango, but history suggests that, in Suarez, he will have just as willing a partner.
