Luis Suarez swept home his sixth Liverpool hat-trick to seal a 6-3 victory over Cardiff City on Saturday before making his apologies to teammate Raheem Sterling.

Suarez matched Robbie Fowler's club Premier League record of 28 strikes in a season when he tore away from the Bluebirds' defence and surged forward in acres of space with seconds remaining.

Glancing over his shoulder, the Uruguayan toyed with the onrushing David Marshall, thought about squaring to Sterling, but instead elected to curl the ball home for his treble.

It was the perfect way to end yet another mesmerising afternoon of football for Brendan Rodgers' side - and as fans toasted a precious win, Suarez made a bee-line for Sterling.

"Maybe I could have tried for the pass to Raheem for the last goal," Suarez told Liverpoolfc.com from the tunnel of the Cardiff City Stadium after the game.

"But I went for the hat-trick for my confidence. I apologised to Raheem. I am so happy with the match ball. I feel very good because Liverpool won the game. We are so happy with the performance today.

"It was an unbelievable match. It was like the result against Stoke City away from home, when it was 5-3. It's difficult when you score and then Cardiff score at the other end, but we played very well today and we'll keep going for next week."

The Bluebirds struck first in front of their own supporters when Jordon Mutch glided inside and rifled low beyond Simon Mignolet to open the scoring after eight minutes.

Suarez pegged them back with a close-range strike after fine build-up play from Rodgers' men; however, Cardiff regained control when Fraizer Campbell fired through a wall of Liverpool shirts for 2-1.

Martin Skrtel then added two crucial touches to pin-point passes from Philippe Coutinho, Suarez weighted in with a fourth and Daniel Sturridge made it five, turning home the Uruguayan's cross.

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Mutch's second goal of the game proved a mere consolation and the rout was complete deep into injury time when Suarez broke free of the back-four and finished calmly for the hat-trick.

"We are in a really good moment now," said Suarez. "We know that in the last few games we have played very well and that's why I am so happy with this performance. We will keep calm, because we know the Premier League is so difficult.

"We'll keep going for the next game and all the focus will be on having a really good game against Sunderland.

"We knew the Chelsea result, but we focused and concentrated on our game. We knew that we had played very well in the last few games."