Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti appeared to gatecrash an interview with Federico Valverde last night.
The Reds suffered a 5-2 defeat to Madrid on Tuesday evening in their Champions League last-16 first leg. It leaves Liverpool with a tall order to overcome a three-goal deficit in the reverse fixture in the Spanish capital next month.
Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah had put Liverpool 2-0 within the first 15 minutes. But Madrid scored five goals without reply to take control of the tie.
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Valverde was a key player for Madrid, and took part in post-match media duties at full-time. The Uruguay international was giving an interview with Spanish TV, and appeared to get interrupted by Ancelotti.
Ancelotti was off camera for Valverde's interview but could be heard telling him to say: "The coach is the reason for today's victory!"
When Valverde got the chance to conduct his post-match duties, the midfielder spoke about what Ancelotti said at half-time with the score at 2-2.
“What Ancelotti said to us at half-time is important,” said Valverde. “He said a lot of things in a few words. He backed us at the right time and it helped us to get back on our feet. He told us that we could win, that we had to go out focused.”
Valverde added: “We made mistakes and they scored two goals. That desire to keep a clean sheet and play a good game came crashing down, but we were able to fight back and show a lot of pride.
“The coach was very calm at half-time. He told us that we’d win, that we’d keep looking for the spaces, that we’d find them because we have the squad to do that.”
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