“F*** off Suarez!” rang out across Anfield and, still in shock after the game, the former Liverpool striker complied.
Luis Suarez was up to his old antics in the second leg of the Champions League semi final against Liverpool, on Tuesday, and many of his former, adoring fans let rip.
The Uruguayan is a scrapper and, even though he has lost some zip, kept the likes of Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk honest. Everyone else in red, on the pitch and in the stands, he just wound up.
Fabinho 🆚 Luis Suarez
A battle well worth keeping an eye on 👀 pic.twitter.com/p42k35UY6x
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 7, 2019
Suarez scored in the first leg, at the Nou Camp, but he squandered his best scoring chance in the second half at Anfield. He had an opportunity to score a crucial away goal but rushed his low drive and Alisson parried it away.
For the rest of the game, for those watching on TV, the only glimpses we got of the Barcelona forward was him staring forlornly into space as his team leaked three more goals to eventually lose 4-3 on aggregate.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Suarez was critical of his team’s defending for the corner kick that led to Divock Origi’s matchwinner.
“For their fourth goal we looked like schoolboys,” he complained.
In fairness to the 32-year-old, he was one of the only Barca players alive to the threat of a quickly-taken corner. Perhaps it was his goalscoring instinct to read danger when he spotted Origi standing unmarked on the corner of the six-yard box. He jogged back towards the Belgian but got there too late to stop him from scoring.
Having played at Anfield on plenty of maniacal, rambunctious nights like this, and with Philippe Coutinho long substituted, Suarez was the only opposition player alive to the danger of a quick corner.
Gerard Pique, for the love of God, was fixing his socks when Trent Alexander-Arnold fired in his low cross.
LIVERPOOL 4-0 BARCELONA. 🤯
Divock Origi LOVES a BIG BIG goal! 🔴
Trent Alexander-Arnold with a piece of GENIUS! 😮#LIVBAR #UCL #VMSport pic.twitter.com/fRO3IYrTWW
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) May 7, 2019
“We have to be ready for all the criticism that is going to rain down on us now,” Suarez added. “We are very sad, we are in a lot of pain.”
The Barca forward said the responsibility for letting big first leg leads slip, two seasons in a row, rests squarely on the players’ shoulders.
He also apologised to ‘our families, our children, our fans’.
