Suarez is no longer the toast of Anfield
Never make a promise you cannot keep. It is an adage drummed into us from childhood in order to prevent disappointment. Perhaps Luis Suarez should have considered it when he faced the media on Monday, ahead of his first competitive return to a stadium where he used to frequently provide box office entertainment. Probed constantly by the Spanish media, Suarez was asked how he would behave following a performance full of fireworks in the Champions League semifinal first leg. He answered with humility and vowed that he would behave as he did when he went back to Groningen with Ajax. The line of questioning was understandable but there was really no need for Suarez to try and secure some favourable Pr. There was no need, either, for him to try to pretend that he was something different to what he actually is. Liverpool fans loved Suarez from the moment he announced himself with a goal on his debut against Stoke in February 2011 to the moment he played his last game against Newcastle in May 2014. They loved him warts and all. Not one set of opposition fans liked him. They hated his snarling and his sniping and the way he would get into fights with their players. He would wind them up, put them off, playing with devilment that he garnered on the streets of Salto in Uruguay. Now the Kop were experiencing the other side of the coin. Suarez had enraged many Liverpudlians in the Nou Camp for the way he argued with Andrew robertson and barged into James Milner and the frenzied way he celebrated the first goal of this quite remarkable tie. Suarez will do anything he can to win. If it means standing on someone’s toes or badgering a referee, he will do it and will not care who he upsets. You saw it in the moments after Divock Origi had got Liverpool a foothold back in the game. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Barcelona’s goalkeeper, cracked a ball forward to chase and Suarez set off in pursuit with virgil van Dijk. The pair jostled and Suarez ended up on the floor. His reaction? To scamper after referee Cuneyt Cakir and implore him to book van Dijk. It was duly noted in the stands. The boos started every time he touched the ball. They followed again in the 33rd minute and again just before half-time after he stamped on robertson. every time he was in possession, the screams were more intense, every time he made a mistake, the cheers a little louder. It was pure pantomime. What we can say for sure now, though, is the love affair that was once so intense has now fizzled out. However, the Suarez incident led to Scotland star robertson hobbling off. The pair had been involved in a heated tunnel ‘spat’ at half-time during last week’s first leg but it’s clear robertson feels he has had the last laugh. Asked about being injured by Suarez, the Scot replied: ‘Who’s going to the final? We are. That’s all that matters. ‘Gini (Wijnaldum)went on for me and scored two. I don’t care right now. ‘I’ve said so many times this season but what a team. ‘We believe. We go to Sunday full of energy. It’s out of our hands but we’ve seen stranger things happen. especially tonight.’