Can't score in big matches? Higuain lays waste to lazy narrative

Gonzalo Higuain can put the ketchup bottle down now. Back when the Argentinian was still in his early 20s, fighting for space in a Real Madrid team that always seemed to boast a handful of more high-profile options up front, he would quickly become anxious any time that he failed to score for more than a couple of games in succession.

He tried to watch what the senior players did, looking for clues as to how someone like Raul or Ruud van Nistelrooy always seemed to stay so cool. In the end, it was the Dutchman who shared some advice that made all the difference. Goals, he said, were a lot like tomato sauce.

"It’s true," insisted Higuain in an interview with Corriere della Sera earlier this season. "You try, but they just won’t come out. And then, when they do come out, they do it all at once - just like ketchup."

Insert your own gag about Higuain and his eating habits here. And while you're busy chuckling at that, the man who was ridiculed for looking overweight last August will kick back and smile at the thought of playing in a Champions League final in June. His were the goals that secured a 2-0 win away to Monaco in the first leg of Juventus' semi on Wednesday.

Higuain had been awaiting this moment - shaking the bottle, if you will - for four long years. His last goal in a Champions League knockout game came all the way back in April 2013, the final strike in Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Galatasaray.

Since then, nothing.

We would do well not to overstate this statistic. Higuain had only played a total of seven eligible matches in the interim - and four of those at Juventus this year. But this was one of those facts that serves a popular narrative. The knock on Higuain is that he tends to go missing in big matches.

It is undeniably true that he has had some catastrophic misses on grand stages, from the World Cup final in Brazil to the Copa America Centenario one year later.

Even as Juventus cruised past Barcelona in the quarter-finals of this competition, he failed for the 11th time in as many visits to score at the Camp Nou.

Gigi Buffon offered the counterpoint at his press conference this week, observing that Higuain's contribution to Juventus should be counted in more than just goals. He insisted that the striker’s tireless work chasing down lost balls and harrying high up the pitch was as important in securing clean sheets against the Catalan side as anything done by Juventus’s defence.

But a team-first ethic is not typically enough to earn any player a €90 million price tag. Higuain knew as well as anyone that Juventus, after winning the Serie A title in each of the last five seasons, signed him to score the goals that would help the Old Lady become the champion of Europe as well.

"I don’t feel any pressure," he insisted when asked earlier this season whether he would expect to take the blame if they failed. "It’s a privilege for me to know that they took me thinking about winning the Champions League."

Those words sounded good when he said them. But fans could be excused if they had a hard time believing that he was not weighed down by expectations. The opening exchanges against Monaco served only to reinforce such suspicions.

In the ninth minute, Paulo Dybala - racing forwards down the left - squared a pass for Higuain, only to watch him overrun the ball and fall over. Moments later, Dani Alves volleyed a cross towards the striker at the back post. Higuain seemed to be arriving at precisely the right moment, but then hesitated and let the ball sail beyond him. Alves threw up his hands in frustration.

A further chance went begging from a corner, Higuain choosing to hook the ball back into the middle rather than shoot when it fell to him on the corner of the six-yard box. That decision alone reeked of a lack of confidence from a player who does not typically have a hard time being selfish.

But when the goal came, just before the half-hour mark, Higuain made it look so simple. A scintillating team move concluded with Alves back-heeling the ball into his path on the edge of the area. Higuain could not have looked any more composed as he swept his finish into the bottom corner of the net.

Related - Watch: Higuain finishes off gorgeous team move as Juve shreds Monaco

He would seal a 2-0 win by prodding home a second in the 59th minute. Once again, Alves did the legwork, his cross from the right wing absolute perfection, but serious focus was nevertheless required for Higuain to track the ball onto his boot behind the desperate lunges of Monaco’s Danijel Subasic and Kamil Glik.

All of a sudden, the ketchup was flowing freely.

Now all Higuain needs to do is keep it going. Well, that and perhaps make sure that he keeps enough in that bottle to take to Cardiff in one month’s time.