Suarez Prepare To Face Liverpool

After a hefty tackle by Danny Drinkwater, Luis Suarez was up and in the Leicester midfielder’s face. It might have been just a preseason friendly but the Uruguayan ran through his juiciest English vocabulary as he showed the midfielder just what he thought of the challenge.

In two seasons with Barcelona, that side of Suarez has rarely reared its head. With one or two exceptions, he has seemed content and at peace in Catalonia. He has finally found a home that fits him and is no longer fighting to make it to the top because he’s made it.

The Drinkwater incident was a reminder of Suarez’s time in England and he will face another Premier League side on Saturday at Wembley, although the striker is unlikely to get embroiled in any fierce arguments or violent scuffles against Liverpool.

After all, they were his team from 2011-14 and they stood by him through one controversy after another. Even in departing, Suarez was a hero, as he scored 31 league goals to win the PFA and Football writers’ Player of the Year awards and, almost, Liverpool’s first title since the 1989-90 season.

Liverpool fans have since watched as Suarez made his individual dreams come true at the Camp Nou, inspiring Barcelona to the treble in 2014-15 and then the league and cup double in 2015-16. The Uruguayan even outscored Lionel Messi last season, earning the European Golden Shoe with 40 league goals and 59 in all competitions.

He will be given a raucous reception from the Liverpool fans at Wembley on Saturday for a game that is a sell-out, with tickets having been snapped up by early June. Suarez is one of the main attractions and he will continue the near-perfect relationship he has formed with Messi.

Neymar is in Brazil, competing in the Rio Olympic Games but the other two parts of Barcelona’s “MSN” forward line have started preseason in fine form, perhaps fired up by their own disappointing summers.

Messi’s started badly as an injury threatened his Copa America participation, before he managed to shake it off and star in the United States, driving Argentina to the final. Unfortunately that’s where the fun stopped and, for the second year running, the Albiceleste went down on penalties to Chile.

Messi fluffed his effort from the spot and subsequently caused a storm by announcing his international retirement. He has come back to Barcelona with a ginger beard and bleached blond hair, apparently determined to put the summer behind him.

Likewise, Suarez also had a Copa America to forget, with his antics against Venezuela mocked around the world. The star was injured and unable to play, yet taped his ankles and laced his boots as if he was expecting to.

His subsequent punching of a dugout wall was interpreted as a sign of anger that he was not brought on but he insisted later that his frustration was due to Uruguay’s imminent elimination from the tournament.

Messi and Suarez helped Barcelona eases past Celtic 3-1, before doing the same against Leicester in a 4-2 win. Suarez’s goal against the English champions was typical of the player, as he scrapped his way past two defenders by showing perseverance, determination and will power, before delivering a lethal finish.

Barcelona’s defence has left a bit to be desired in their warm-up games so far but the attack is already firing nicely and Suarez’s inability to give anything but 100 percent effort is a part of that. Given the way he has charged around in the first two games, you’d be forgiven for thinking the International Champions Cup was the most important competition on his calendar.

Against Celtic he met his former Anfield manager Brendan Rodgers in a little taster of what will come at Wembley as he is pitted against his past. While this is the first time he will have faced his old side, though, he’s not been a stranger to the club and, as recently as March, popped up at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground to see old friends.

“Everybody knows Liverpool is so important in my life, in my career, and my family as well,” Suarez told Liverpool’s website. “My second child was born there and I had a really good moment there. I think it’s a nice moment for me.”

So Suarez is unlikely to bare his teeth against his old side and far likelier to remind them of what they once had in attack. Even if he does, both he and Liverpool will look back at what they had and know they were a perfect match. One that could not last forever, true, but something neither party will ever forget.