Nizhniy Novgorod: Luis Suarez will make his 100th international appearance for Uruguay when the South American side face Saudi Arabia in a Group A game of the FIFA World Cup, Wednesday.
Barring any last minute disasters, for the Barcelona striker, who has made so many headlines at the World Cup for reasons other than football, it is appropriate for Suarez to play his landmark game for the Celeste at football’s biggest tournament.
The match should be routine and could secure Uruguay’s passage to the knockout stage, but with Suarez football fans know that very few things are mundane.
The last two World Cups have seen Suarez exit in ignominy. In 2010, the forward was sent off after making a last minute save on the goalline with his hand against Ghana, which helped avoid defeat and saw the South Americans progress to the last four.
- In 99 matches Suarez has so far scored 51 goals for Uruguay
- Suarez has scored five goals in the World Cup
The incident became so infamous it got its own Wikipedia entry – Suarez even described it as the best save of the tournament – but that was nothing to what happened four years later.
In 2014, he was banned from all football for four months and fined after biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini, the third biting incident of his career.
Suarez is a player loved and loathed in equal measure; his on-field behaviour has been questionable but not so his talent.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia still smarting from their opening day 0-5 drubbing by Russia, could make wholesale changes as they desperately try to stay in the tournament.