The England striker has been hurting for the past three years after Rafael Benitez delivered the trophy to Anfield following a remarkable victory against AC Milan.

Now Rooney will get his chance on Wednesday in Moscow when United face Chelsea and the 22-year-old said: "It is difficult when you see one of your rivals winning things. When Liverpool took the trophy, it was hard to take."

He added: "Because they haven't really been challenging for the league in the last few years, they've had chances to rest players before big Champions League games and that helped them.

"By Liverpool winning the Champions League, it's made us want to win it even more."

Rooney gets great pleasure teasing his pals from the Kop.

One such scenario unfolded nine years ago when United won the European Cup with a famous last-gasp victory against Bayern Munich in Barcelona.

He explained: "A few of us watched the match and most of my mates were Liverpool fans. It was just me and another pal who were Everton supporters. We wanted United to win and obviously they (my mates) didn't.

"When they won, I was really happy and we were winding the Liverpool fans up.

"I remember listening to the radio after the game and they were speaking to a lot of fans around Manchester. The atmosphere there sounded brilliant, so hopefully I can be involved in something like that this year."