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[bcolor=transparent]Dejan Lovren: Liverpool defender shouted at team-mates to 'wake up' at half-time[/bcolor]
[bcolor=transparent]Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren says he found himself shouting at his team-mates to "wake up" as they trailed Manchester City 1-0 in the Champions League quarter-final second leg.[/bcolor]
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[bcolor=transparent]Liverpool responded to win 2-1 at Etihad Stadium and 5-1 on aggregate. But Lovren, who hopes to avoid Real Madrid in the last four, says it fell to him to remind the Reds at half-time there was a semi-final place at stake. "To be honest I was shouting a bit at half-time," said the 28-year-old. "I told the lads to wake up because it was not good enough and I said we were sitting too deep. "I needed to remind the guys that we had 50 minutes to be in the semi-finals of the Champions League and we needed to give more."[/bcolor]
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[bcolor=transparent]The Bosnia international insisted his input was "all positive, nothing negative" and says manager Jurgen Klopp agreed. "Of course Klopp said 'yes, you are sitting too deep because you are not pushing up'," added Lovren. "He wanted me and Virg (Virgil van Dijk) to be more compact and push the team up, but it was quite difficult to push up when City had the ball."[/bcolor]
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[bcolor=transparent]Real Madrid and Bayern Munich lead their respective quarter-final ties against Juventus and Sevilla after the first legs, and are expected to join Liverpool and Roma in the semi-finals. "From a personal point of view I don't want Real Madrid in the semi-finals," said Lovren. "They have a lot of experience in the Champions League, a lot of records and over the past three seasons it is always them. "But whoever we get will find it difficult to come to Anfield and score some goals. "People talked from the beginning about Manchester City being favourites and they were favourites, but I think after this there should be more respect for Liverpool."
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[bcolor=transparent]Liverpool responded to win 2-1 at Etihad Stadium and 5-1 on aggregate. But Lovren, who hopes to avoid Real Madrid in the last four, says it fell to him to remind the Reds at half-time there was a semi-final place at stake. "To be honest I was shouting a bit at half-time," said the 28-year-old. "I told the lads to wake up because it was not good enough and I said we were sitting too deep. "I needed to remind the guys that we had 50 minutes to be in the semi-finals of the Champions League and we needed to give more."[/bcolor]
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[bcolor=transparent]The Bosnia international insisted his input was "all positive, nothing negative" and says manager Jurgen Klopp agreed. "Of course Klopp said 'yes, you are sitting too deep because you are not pushing up'," added Lovren. "He wanted me and Virg (Virgil van Dijk) to be more compact and push the team up, but it was quite difficult to push up when City had the ball."[/bcolor]
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[bcolor=transparent]Real Madrid and Bayern Munich lead their respective quarter-final ties against Juventus and Sevilla after the first legs, and are expected to join Liverpool and Roma in the semi-finals. "From a personal point of view I don't want Real Madrid in the semi-finals," said Lovren. "They have a lot of experience in the Champions League, a lot of records and over the past three seasons it is always them. "But whoever we get will find it difficult to come to Anfield and score some goals. "People talked from the beginning about Manchester City being favourites and they were favourites, but I think after this there should be more respect for Liverpool."
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I just don't get this motherfuckers problem. This now works one of two ways, he's either jinxed the fuck out of them and Juventus pull off the comeback. Or, as I suspect, he's fucked us yet again, we'll draw Real on the back of some record 9-0 aggregate win, and we'll duly roll over in the semis by way of an unforgettable Dejan Lovren disasterclass. I'm done. His daughter's life now depends upon which outcome comes to pass and that's it.
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