Luis Suárez has admitted that the booing he received at Manchester City only gave him more motivation to score.
The Barcelona striker struck twice in Tuesday’s 2-1 Champions League victory at the Etihad Stadium and said the response he got from fans on his first return to England since his summer move from Liverpool just spurred him on even more.
“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,” he said.
Suárez added that he felt City gave Barcelona too much space, which they took full advantage of, but insists the last-16 tie is not over, with the second leg to come in Spain on 18 March.
“We produced a really good game, the team in general, and managed to take advantage of the space City left open,” Suárez said. “We were clever in our reading of the game and we created a lot of openings and could have scored another goal. Obviously it is pleasing, first of all to be able to help the team, they were important goals in a Champions League knockout game.
“We know it if was 3-1 [and Messi had converted a penalty] we might have been able to relax a little bit, not 100 %. But against City you never know what might happen, they have a lot of good players who can win a game for them.”