He didn’t realise it at the time, but Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Manchester United in March 2014 was to be Luis Suarez’s last visit to Old Trafford for the Merseyside club.
With defending champions United reduced to mediocrity by David Moyes, Brendan Rodgers’ side were making a serious play for the Premier League.
The brilliance of Suarez was central to that ultimately unsuccessful title tilt, and the Uruguayan got the final goal that afternoon to complete a convincing victory over their great rivals.
The other goals had come courtesy of Steven Gerrard, who converted two of the three penalties Mark Clattenburg awarded to Liverpool that day. Discussing the game in his recently-updated autobiography, Suarez admits that he couldn’t believe that the referee had given so many penalties against United on their home turf – especially the final spot kick, which saw Daniel Sturridge go to to ground under a challenge from Nemanja Vidic.
‘I must admit, I never thought I would see three penalties given against Manchester United at Old Trafford. I certainly didn’t think we would get the one given to Sturridge,” the Barcelona forward writes.
‘He threw himself down. But then it was such a good dive that even I thought it was a penalty. I saw it and thought penalty. But then I also saw how annoyed Vidic was, which made me think that perhaps it wasn’t a foul.’
‘When I saw the replay, I realised that Daniel was about a metre away from Vidic. I said to Daniel later, ‘Can you imagine what would have happened if that would have been me?’
‘He said ‘I felt him touching me’ and started laughing.’
The penalty that Sturridge won turned out to be the one that was missed by Gerrard, although it did result in Vidic being sent off – ending any faint hopes of a United comeback on the day.
Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live…
