Luis Suarez finally reveals why he felt he HAD to leave Liverpool for Barcelona

Luis Suarez celebrates a goal for Liverpool

Fresh from firing the Reds to the brink of a famous league title Suarez left for Catalunya, following the now infamous clash with Giorgio Chiellini in 2014

Luis Suarez has opened up and explained why he felt he HAD to leave Liverpool for Barcelona.

Fresh from firing the Reds to the brink of a famous league title the free-scoring Uruguayan left for Catalunya, following the now infamous clash with Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup.

Suarez came in for criticism in the wake of his £75million transfer with many onlookers claiming he engineered his way out of Anfield.

But, speaking to his former teammate Jamie Carragher , Suarez explains why he felt he had to leave the club.

"My desire at Liverpool was to help get the club playing in the elite because they had been five years without it. We used to talk about it in the dressing room,

"If Liverpool are not in the Champions League, it is difficult to get the best players to come to the club.

"That’s why for me to come to Barcelona there had to be that opportunity to not just play the tournament but to win it."

Suarez has gone to glittering success with Barca and as part of perhaps the greatest scoring trio we've ever seen has rewritten the record books.

Despite clearly relishing his success on the continent Suarez admits that looking back at that missed opportunity in the 2014 run-in still lingers.

"That hurt. That hurt so much. We were so desperate to win it. I knew we had a unique opportunity and we were playing so well," he added.

"It was that desire to get more goals against Crystal Palace that let them back into it and killed us. I knew when we drew that game the league was lost."