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It’s been almost 180 days since Sergio Ramos put Mohamed Salah into a judo hold, fun-cussed Loris Karius and gave Roberto Firmino the flu by sweating on him, but to Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren, it still smacks of yesterday.
The Croatian defender has gone full-on Dani Alves of late, telling anyone and everyone under the sun about his every whim and desire, and we’re here for it.
During the World Cup, Lovren’s claim that he was one of the best defenders on the planet was met with mirth by football’s Twitter meme lords.
Lovren then attempted to justify his statements by drawing a comparison with the world’s most hated defender: “If you look at Ramos,” he said, “he has many more mistakes than me. But he is at Real Madrid. When you do a mistake but you win 5-1, 5-2 then nobody sees the mistake. And I’m quite unlucky. When I do the mistake it’s 1-0! Finished! But I carry on.”
Ramos dismissed Lovren’s claims as nothing more than a bit of calculated attention seeking: “I’ve said it many times,” he said. “I don’t know if these things are said out of frustration or for other reasons. I’m not going to answer Lovren or whoever wants to win three front pages or start the news bulletin. Everyone wins things for himself on the pitch.”
The two then actually met out on the pitch for the first time since the UCL final during the Nov. 15 UEFA Nations League clash between Croatia and Spain in Zagreb. Ramos converted a penalty, but Tin Jedvaj’s 93rd-minute winner gave all three points to the World Cup finalists.
In the immediate aftermath of the victory, Lovren took to Instagram live to talk about Ramos: “He got the elbow! I killed him! Haha! 3-2! And you just keep talking at the press conference, dude… They (Spain) are just p******.”
Dejan Lovren calls out Sergio Ramos because the things Ramos said at the press conference before the match. Lovren says Ramos is pu**y. Brilliant. pic.twitter.com/5A3yT2fZmp
— Armando Ostojic (@gamechanger3414) November 15, 2018
That was followed by a pretty clearly intentioned photo on Instagram the next morning.
Lovren also responded to a message asking if the elbow was retribution for Salah, and his cryptic response was quite clear.
It all escalated to the point where Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic promised to speak to Lovren before yesterday’s match against England.
“I will talk personally with Dejan, but that will stay between us and the squad,” he said. “I don’t want to talk publicly about this.”
However, the most recent development in the spat is Ramos liking an Instagram photo of Lovren crying, which is just perfect.
This isn’t as exciting as the quick yellow card exchange between Denmark’s Kasper Dolberg and Wales’ Ethan Ampadu on Friday, but the next time Ramos and Lovren meet on the pitch, it’ll probably look somewhat similar.
Ethan Ampadu lives by the mantra of "Give and ye shall revive." #CYMDEN #WALDEN pic.twitter.com/mo4wDlWwVx
— Jayfuz; Ashley Williams fan account~ (@Jayfuz) November 17, 2018
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