Dejan Lovren admits to elbowing Sergio Ramos for Mohamed Salah

Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has admitted he deliberately elbowed Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos as a revenge for foul on Mohamed Salah

The Zenith Saint Petersburg centre-half claimed he set out to hurt the Real Madrid legend in an international match between Spain and Croatia.

Real went on to become European champions for the 13th time in 2018 when  they ran out a 3-1 win against Liverpool, with a Karim Benzema goal and a Gareth Bale brace cancelling out Sadio Mane's effort for the Reds.

Lovren was still fuming over an incident during  the encounter which saw his Reds teammate Mohamed Salah come off worse during a tangle with Ramos.

Salah was forced to leave the pitch in agony after landing on his shoulder, with Liverpool fans adamant that Ramos had deliberately tried to injure their man.

As a revenge for his Liverpool teammate 29-year-old Lovren publicly admits he threw an elbow at the Madrid star during a UEFA Nations League match for which he received a one-match ban.

"I elbowed him good. Haha! 3-2! Go ahead and talk now buddy. Buddy!" Lovren said on Instagram after the match.

And recently the 31-year-old who moved to Zenith Saint Petersburg earlier this summer has again confirmed his actions were intentional.

"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."