Luis Suarez has revealed Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge purposefully dived to win a penalty in a match against Manchester United
Suarez was talking about a match in March 2014, in which Liverpool beat Manchester United 3-0, winning an astounding three penalties in that game.
Steven Gerrard scored 2 of those penalties, before Suarez rounded off the victory with a goal late in the game.
As written in his upcoming autobiography, “Crossing the Line : My Story”, Suarez admitted that he was surprised himself that Liverpool got 3 penalties, and that he thought they would not get one for Sturridge’s dive :
“I must admit, I never thought I would see three penalties given against Manchester United at Old Trafford,” Suarez wrote.
“I certainly didn’t think we would get the one given to Daniel Sturridge.”
“He threw himself down. But then it was such a good dive that even I thought it was a penalty. When I saw the replay, I realised that Daniel was about a metre away from Vidic.”
This was the season in which Liverpool went agonisingly close to clinching the title, only to lose steam in the final few games of the season and concede the title to Manchester City.
Suarez would later move to Barcelona at the end of that same season, in a £65 million deal.
Both their careers have taken very different paths since then, with Suarez winning two La Liga titles and a Champions League trophy with the Catalan giants.
Sturridge, on the other hand, has found playing time hard to come by under Jurgen Klopp, and questions over his long-term future at Anfield have failed to go away.
Suarez also revealed that he spoke to Sturridge about the incident after that :
“I said to Daniel later, ‘Can you imagine what would have happened if that had been me?’ he wrote.
“He said, ‘I felt him touch me’, and started laughing.”
There is no doubt the reaction would have been very different had Suarez been the one involved, with the English press and opposition fans vilifying the striker after his controversial behaviour in England – most notally the racism incident with Patrice Evra for which he was banned for 8 games.
Suarez has gone on to bigger and better things, however, and still remembers his time at Anfield fondly.
