UEFA Champions League: Luis Suarez Promises No Mercy While Liverpool Looks For Redemption
UEFA Champions League is around the corner and Barca striker Luis Suarez has promised to be nothing less than ruthless against former club Liverpool at the Nou Camp as he looks to end Champions League drought. Barcelona is set to take on Liverpool in the first leg of the semi-final clash, at their own home ground ta Camp Nou.
Luis Suarez has emphasised that he will be showing no mercy if he gets the chance to dump former club Liverpool out of the Champions League.
But he genuinely believes that whatever fate awaits the Reds against his Barcelona, the glory days are definitely returning to Anfield. In the last few years, Liverpool was not performing up to its standard and had to face an onslaught of several jokes. Yet, this year Liverpool has managed to revive their lost glory and made their way back to the good old days.
Luis Suarez, 31, had spent four years on Merseyside and admits the club will always have a soft corner in his heart. After all, Liverpool was the club that gave the push that Suarez needed to unleash his full potential.
Ahead of their Champions League semifinal, first leg showdown, Suarez said: “Liverpool will always be important for me — for giving me an opportunity, for playing a big part in my development, and for the amazing fans.
“But this is a Champions League semifinal and all that will matter is helping Barcelona fight to get one step closer to another trophy.”
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The Uruguay international football player played at Anfield between 2010–14 wearing the fabled No 7 shirt, scoring 82 goals in 133 appearances before leaving for Catalonia. For four years he had donned the jersey proudly.
In his final season in a Red shirt, Suarez went amazingly close to landing the Premier League under Brendan Rodgers, only losing out to Manchester City.
In the penultimate game, the visual of the striker weeping with all his heart under his shirt as Crystal Palace’s stunning comeback from 3–0 down shattered Liverpool’s hopes, became one of the most memorable images of the campaign. It showed the world the humane side of Luis Suarez.
Suarez says he is keeping his fingers crossed Jurgen Klopp’s side can put things right and edge their gripping battle with City for this season’s crown. Yet whatever happens over the course of the final two games, the striker strongly feels that it will only be a matter of time before Liverpool regain their place at the summit of English football, and once again join the elite clubs of English Football.
“Liverpool is now in a position where their future looks very bright again,” said Suarez.
“The race is so tight in England it is impossible to say out of Liverpool and Manchester City who will be champions. “But Liverpool are in a position where they will be challenging in the future. When we nearly won the title there was so much disappointment because I think there was a feeling that was our moment and we wouldn’t get another.”
“But now Liverpool have the squad, the investment, the set-up where this will not be a one-off season.” Barcelona goes into the Champions League semifinal on a high having wrapped up a fourth La Liga title in the last five years with victory over Levante on Saturday.”
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And the Catalan giants are still in with a shout of a European treble with their dates with Liverpool standing in the way of a first Champions League final since 2015. Valencia is their opponents in the Copa Del Rey final on May 25.
Luis Suarez Suarez has made a huge chunk of contribution to that success, scoring 21 goals in the league and three in the domestic cup, but he has failed to score in the Champions League this season. He is yet to prove his mantle when it comes to UEFA Champions League.
Coutinho’s sale was the much-needed catalyst for Liverpool. Liverpool has grown used to seeing their prized assets snatched away by the deadly Spanish giants over the past decade, but the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona helped lay the foundations for a successful rebuild at Anfield. It allowed Klopp to successfully revamp and rebuild the team and bring in new changes.
Coutinho, who has struggled fiercely to live up to the expectations of his £142mn price tag, will also come up against his former football club tonight. Liverpool learned their lesson from the departures of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano to Madrid and Barcelona that quickly dismantled the title-challenging team put together by Rafael Benitez and the devastating effect of losing Suarez to Barca had five years ago. These transfers were probably the one that really hit Liverpool badly and in turn started a low phase for the once mighty English Club.
Barcelona was desperate for more and more star power when Neymar walked out to join Paris Saint-Germain in August 2017, the Reds hierarchy dug their heels in and drove the price up for the Brazilian.
Coutinho finally got his dream move in January 2018, but by that time the centrepiece to the foundation that has seen Klopp re awake the five-time European champions as a force on the continent had been put in place. The wheels were already in motion.
Virgil van Dijk’s £75mn move from Southampton to the Red made the Dutchman the world’s most expensive defender ever and was roundly questioned at the time. Many believe that he didn’t justify the price tag offered to him and that Liverpool had committed a blunder.
However, his impact has been so instrumental in the transformation of Liverpool’s hitherto leaky backline that he became the first defender in 14 years to be crowned the Premier League players’ player of the year on Sunday.
“From the first moment I was so excited about the opportunity to work together and now you are the man,” said Klopp in his congratulatory message to his talismanic centre-back.
Coutinho’s five years at Anfield produced plenty of awe-inspiring goals, but he did not win a single trophy and Liverpool only qualified for the Champions League twice in during that time.
Whereas Van Dijk’s first five months helped nail down a top-four Premier League finish and a run to last season’s Champions League final, which ended in a 3–1 defeat to Real Madrid thanks to two huge errors from goalkeeper Loris Karius. Nevertheless, it was a major improvement than what Liverpool had fallen into.
More of the Coutinho money was then spent on getting Brazilian number one Alisson Becker from Roma, while Klopp’s midfield options were bolstered by the arrival of Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri last summer. Klopp was strategically getting players who could really bring something more to the team.
Liverpool was also able to pin down the prolific front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino on long-term contracts to ensure they stay put or command huge fees to leave like Coutinho.
That excellent off-field management and strategy have been rewarded on the pitch by a club record points tally of 91 with two Premier League games of the campaign still to go. Klopp has described delivering a first top-flight title in 29 years as the “holy grail”, but his side would still need a blunder by the relentless defending champions Manchester City to bag the English Premier League title.
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Even though all this progress is made, the German is yet to win a trophy since arriving at Anfield in October 2015.
The pain of missing out on the Premier League titles once more despite an astounding record-breaking campaign and after playing some fabulous football would be eased substantially if there was a Champions League final against Tottenham or Ajax to look forward to on June 1. And beating Barca would carry the extra satisfaction of showing Coutinho how little he has been missed on Merseyside.
Originally published at Sporcial.
