Suarez Excited For Champions League Return To Anfield
Barcelona striker Luis Suarez says he is excited to return to Anfield with his family to face Liverpool in Champions League
Barcelona striker Luis Suarez is excited for his Champions League reunion with former club Liverpool next week.
The Uruguay international left Anfield in 2014 for Camp Nou and is set to face his old team for the first time since his departure in Tuesday's semi-final first leg.
The 32-year-old has fond memories of his time on Merseyside and revealed the two eldest of his three children – Delfina, aged eight, and six-year-old Benjamin - are eager to come with him to Merseyside.
"My kids never go to Champions League games but they want to go to this one," he told the Guardian.
"I was talking to [his wife] Sofi about Anfield and they said. 'We're going too.' We'll all go, except maybe Lauti, [who was] six months [old] yesterday. Benja was very small but he was born in Liverpool and knows it’s his first stadium. He's seen photos.
"Part of Delfi’s childhood is there: when she first started to get excited by football, it was there. She remembers what it was like, singing You'll Never Walk Alone, so imagine what this means for her.
"It's going to be a strange feeling but lovely, too. I saw Carra [Jamie Carragher] at Old Trafford and he was excited. Jordan [Henderson] is still there; some friends of his came for the Clasico. It’ll be nice to see the staff.
"I'm so grateful but I'm there to play for Barcelona, knowing what our targets are. Once we're playing there'll be no friendship, no mates, none of those lovely memories. That's the way I am as a player, everyone knows."
Liverpool are challenging for the Premier League for the first time since 2013-14, when Suarez played an integral role and he believes winning the title with his erstwhile team-mates would have been a bigger achievement than the current crop doing so.
"I understand what they're going through and it can't be easy, but I think with us it was different because it was now or never, a one-off. When I was there, it was very different. We were on the verge of the Premier League with a squad nowhere near as good.
"They didn't spend as much as they're doing now. Any player would like to go to Liverpool now; it was different then. If we'd won the league, I think it would have been an even bigger achievement than if this team do.
"The front three are very quick, technically gifted, so much talent; they're players who make the difference and Liverpool's results depend on them. The kind of players you'd love to play with, with the level you'd expect for a club like Liverpool, built to win the Premier League and the Champions League."
