Dejan Lovren has said that while he is ‘proud’ of his performances in Russia, he his hurting at the fact he has lost two major finals in the space of just two months.
Last week, Lovren hilariously declared himself as one of the best defenders in the World after reaching both the Champions League and World Cup finals. However, as things have transpired, he has ended up on the losing side on both occasions, after Real Madrid beat Liverpool in Kiev before France put Croatia to the sword in Moscow.
Speaking to the media following Sunday’s World Cup final defeat, the 29-year-old was unable to hide his disappointment:
“I am pleased that I performed well but overall it’s not enough,” Lovren said.
“You need to win. It hurts personally because I lost the Champions League final and now this final and it’s not easy to accept. I will carry this all my life but I will also carry joy because not many players play in these two big finals so close together.
“It’s difficult to understand and to accept when you lose and play well. I feel proud, though, because we gave everything but sometimes you are better but still don’t win. It will definitely motivate me next season to win trophies, especially with Liverpool.”
Despite approaching his thirties, Lovren added that there was still plenty more miles in the tank yet:
“I feel young for a defender, there’s still a lot more to come from me and I think we made our country proud. I saw the pictures after the final of the celebrations from Croatia and I’m proud of that. We are expecting a lot more people in Zagreb when we go home and that will be a beautiful thing for a second place.
“The party will be good because we are good at that. We are the best at that! We believed we could do it. We played the biggest teams and we beat a team like Argentina 3-0. We have regrets now when we look at decisions but it doesn’t make sense anymore.”
Despite the defeat, Croatia’s run to the final was their best ever World Cup performance, surpassing their semi-final defeat (also to France) back in 1998, which was their first ever appearance on the World stage.
