Barcelona news: Luis Suarez reveals he 'suffered for weeks' after UCL semi-final defeat against Liverpool
What's the story?
FC Barcelona striker Luis Suarez has revealed that he suffered for weeks after his side's semi-final loss to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League last season. The sharpshooter termed the situation post defeat as 'complicated' and added that himself and his teammates experienced a very hard time.
In case you didn't know...
Liverpool stunned Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, overturning the Spanish club's comfortable three-goal lead from the first leg by defeating them 4-0 in the reverse fixture at Anfield.
The Merseysiders then went on to lift the Champions League trophy in Madrid by claiming a comfortable victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the final.
On the other hand, Barcelona have struggled on the European stage in recent years, having gone past the quarter-finals of the tournament just once in the last four seasons.
The heart of the matter
Suarez lifted the lid on how he felt after Barcelona's defeat to Liverpool in the semi-finals.
He said:
"It was days, weeks, that we who loved to take the kids to school, football, activities - we suffered. I did not want to leave from home after losing. It was very complicated. I really had a bad time, like most of my team-mates.
We had already learned the previous year that we could have such a 3-0 result in our favor, but football has that. We knew how Anfield was going to be and how tight the stadium was, I told the teammates and everything."
He further elaborated:
"It is not necessary to take away merits from Liverpool, which pushed the fans. In five minutes they had two situations, at 15 minutes they already won and that enters you, it generates a nervousness.
Then you see that a teammate loses the ball, another loses two more balls, and that leads you to an awkward situation until in the second half it goes out as it came out. The Champions League has that, if you go out 30 seconds relaxed, they pass you by."
What's next?
Suarez, who injured his calf during Barcelona's 1-0 defeat against Athletic Bilbao on opening day of the LaLiga, is expected to be out for a few weeks.
Meanwhile, the Blaugrana will square-off against Valencia at Camp Nou after the international break, on September 15.