Barcelonaa s Luis Suarez has backed Lionel Messi as the first choice penalty taker for the team.
Suarez came out in support of Messi after the Argentina superstar missed a penalty in the Champions League game against Manchester City. If Messi had scored the penalty, it would have been next to impossible for City to get back into the game, as they would have had to score 3 goals at the Camp Nou.
Suarez said, “Messi is the penalty taker, end of story.
“He will bounce back from this. Yes, it was a disappointment, but Lionel knows how to deal with these situations.
“He is very tough on the inside. This won’t play on his mind at all.”
Even manager Luis Enrique came out in support of Messi, insisting that he would still be the main man when it came to taking penalties for Barcelona despite missing 3 times this season.
Enrique said, “Those who miss penalties are those who dare to take them and our penalty taker is undoubtedly Leo Messi.
“We have the utmost confidence in his capacity to take them,” he told reporters
At the same time Luis Suarez said that he didna t mind when fans booed him, saying he gets motivated to perform even better when that happens.
He said: “There are certain types of players, like me, who get more inspired, more motivated, when fans boo them. It helps motivate you a bit more.
“Obviously it is pleasing to be able to help the team. They were important goals in a Champions League knockout game.”
Suarez has had an especially turbulent time with English fans barring the Kop, always finding himself in the news for all the wrong reasons. He even took a swing at the English media for suggesting the he bit Martin Demechelis.
“I came to Barcelona to help out, to win silverware. I’m doing my job and helping the team a lot. What happened with Demichelis? There is proof that he placed his hand under my throat. The English press are always looking to involve me in something and make me look bad,” Suarez said to Uruguayan radio station Sport 890.
“I do not understand why they want to do this. They want to make trouble – a mountain out of a molehill. They must be hurt after what I did to them in the World Cup but they forget that I played in England and they should show me some respect.”
Suarez also expressed discontent in the way he was treated by FIFA. He said, a The way I was treated when I had to leave the World Cup was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced as a player. I’ll never understand it… they treated me worse than a hooligan,a