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What's the story?
Luis Suarez has opened up on how the Champions League semi-final exit against Liverpool tore him and his Barcelona colleagues apart.
In case you didn’t know…
Barcelona was on course for a treble this season with a brilliant domestic record having wrapped up the La Liga early with a healthy lead over second-placed Atletico Madrid. However, the season finished on a low as they could finish with only 1 trophy in the end. In the Champions League semis, the La Liga giants registered a 3-0 win vs Liverpool at Camp Nou in the first leg of the tie with Suarez opening the scoresheet and Messi adding a couple more. Liverpool came back with a strong performance in the second leg at Anfield which resulted in 4-0 victory and Barcelona losing out 4-3 on aggregate. The result tore apart the entire Barcelona dressing room. They reached the finals of the Copa del Rey where they lost 2-1 to Valencia making it a season to forget for the Catalans.
The heart of the matter
When asked about his condition post the traumatic exit from the Champions League semis at Anfield, Suarez responded:
"The days after back in Barcelona were the worst moments of my life and career along with the 2014 World Cup, I wanted to disappear from the world," he told Fox Sports, via The Mirror.
"I didn't want to take my children to school, everyone could see I was in a very bad way, I had days I didn't want to do anything, they were very difficult moments."
"I didn't see it because we are Barcelona and we thought we'd have two or three chances to score, but we became nervous, we gave stupid passes away, we didn't show the right attitude," the Uruguayan added.
"When the first goal came we didn't know how to react, we knew we had really messed up. After the game in the dressing room, no-one could say anything, there was sadness, bitterness and disappointment because we knew we'd given an awful image."
What’s next?
Luis Suarez is currently with the Uruguayan national team for the Copa America in Brazil where they kickstart their campaign against Ecuador on 17th June. A trophy in the national colours will soothe the scars that Suarez has faced towards the business end of the season.
