Dejan Lovren has confirmed he deliberately elbowed Sergio Ramos during an international match between Croatia and Spain as revenge for the incident involving Mo Salah in the 2018 Champions League final.

The Egyptian international had to be taken off with a shoulder injury during the game; a match that was won by Real Madrid 3-1, but Lovren says he did not forget the encounter and got his own back a year later:

“I deliberately hit Ramos after hurting Salah? Yes, this is possible. Luka Modric tried to reduce the tension between me and Ramos, and we were facing Spain together with the Croatian national team, and I deliberately hit him with my elbows and told him that we have drawn now.”

“I respect Ramos as a player and what he does for his team. He has won a lot of titles, but on the other hand, he does some behaviour that I do not like and harm the players. I do not want to make a big story, but I think that what Ramos did was intentional to injure my friend, so it was time to pay for what he has done.”

“We were playing much better than Real Madrid before Salah was injured in the Champions League final. His exit was a big blow for us, after his exit, they began to dominate the match.”

Lovren and Salah are known to be good friends so it wasn’t a surprise that the Croatian got his own back on Ramos. Such incidents do occur on the football pitch, although they are rarely admitted to after the fact.

With Lovren now having departed Anfield following his move to Zenit St Petersburg, Salah won’t be able to call upon his friend if he needs to be protected in future games, but the Egyptian has already hinted that he has found a new favourite teammate.