Push Dembele, like Benzema did with Vinicius Jr. in Madrid

Over the last few months, Barcelona have feverishly been trying to shave tens of millions of euros off their player salary bill. But if Robert Lewandowski can triumph in the hidden task that he now knows lies in front of him then the LaLiga club’s president, Joan Laporta, should immediately double the Polish striker’s wages.

For as long as Lewandowski and Karim Benzema stay fit, this season will be a thrilling, high-stakes, toe-to-toe battle between them to score sufficient goals to fire their respective teams to trophies.

Real Madrid’s man, Benzema, obviously has a significant advantage in that, over the last few seasons, he’s broken in Vinicius Junior as a brilliant and increasingly inspirational strike partner. Last season the French-Brazilian duo shared a total of 111 goals and assists for Los Blancos while conquering both Spain and Europe. Devastating.

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And while the ex-Bayern Munich man has already discovered that Pedri, Ansu Fati and Raphinha have innate understanding for his penalty box movement, the guy who holds the strongest profile as Lewandowski’s “Vinicius” is the occasionally brilliant but perpetually frustrating Ousmane Dembele. These two men, although both have history at Borussia Dortmund, are in a novice partnership.

Lewandowski isn’t famed for his patience in the face of second-class work, and while his tolerance isn’t destroyed yet, not by a long way, Saturday’s win at Sevilla gave evidence of the scale of the job in front of him. Barcelona, having looked like conceding two or three over the first 20 minutes, were 2-0 up courtesy of Raphinha and Lewandowski’s fifth goal in four matches.

Sevilla’s corner kick just before half-time flew to the back post, where Pedri volleyed it away in the knowledge that the home side only had two defenders back and Dembele was lurking halfway up the pitch. A visionary, improvised pass. Off went the Frenchman like a supercharged Road Runner. His marker,…