Hart looking to England’s Liverpool stars to stop Suarez

Five of Brendan Rodgers’ squad made the trip to Brazil with England, with Rickie Lambert signing soon after, and the goalkeeper hopes their experience can stifle the striker

Joe Hart is looking to England’s Liverpool contingent for help in stopping Luis Suarez when Roy Hodgson’s men face Uruguay in the World Cup.

Roy Hodgson’s side start their Group D campaign in Brazil against Italy on Saturday evening, before facing Uruguay on June 19 and Costa Rica on June 24.

Suarez was a double player-of-the-year winner this season after notching 31 goals in 33 appearances for Liverpool, and Hart is expecting the striker to pose a significant threat to the Three Lions.

“The fact we know Suarez means we know that he’ll cause trouble for us,” Hart to reporters. “There’ll be some familiarity, and the Liverpool players will know him a lot better.

“I’m sure they’ll give us their input on the different ways of stopping him. It’s fair to say we are more familiar with Italy. We know a bit about Uruguay because of the Suarez factor and [Edinson] Cavani.

“Then Costa Rica are a bit more unknown at the moment. But we’ll do our research. It’s three really tough games – but it’s a World Cup so you don’t expect anything else.

“They’re all dangerous, they all came through tough qualifying campaigns, Italy in Europe and the other two in South America. It’s not easy to do that.”

Hart was part of Fabio Capello’s squad that were knocked out at the last-16 stage in the 2010 World Cup, but did not play a game, and is now looking forward to representing his country on the world stage.

The goalkeeper, though, also backed the likes of the inexperienced Adam Lallana and Ross Barkley to head into the tournament full of confidence after impressing for Southampton and Everton domestically.

“I enjoyed the last World Cup, I’d not been involved in too many squads before that, and I’d had a good season at Birmingham,” he added.

“I understood that Rob Green and David James had played in the majority of the qualifiers, so I was happy to back them up, provide support. This time, I hope I’ll be playing.

“I think we’ve had a really positive season with these players, the young guys coming through. I think we have to go out there with no fear – and make sure we leave the tournament with no regrets.”

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