🚨Sergio Ramos on facing Lionel Messi:
🗣️ “People think they understand what it's like to play against Lionel Messi. Trust me... they don't. I spent years trying to stop him, studying him, tackling him, chasing him and still walking off the pitch wondering how he escaped again. He made some of the greatest defenders in football look completely helpless.”
“There were nights I hated seeing his name on the team sheet because you knew one mistake, one second of switching off, and he'd punish you without mercy. Playing against him wasn't just physically exhausting it destroyed you mentally.”
“Now that I can watch him without having to stop him, I appreciate something I couldn't fully appreciate back then. We weren't just playing against a great footballer... we were playing against football history in motion.”
“I've faced the best players of every generation, lifted the biggest trophies and battled the toughest opponents. But if you ask me who the greatest footballer this sport has ever produced, my answer will always be the same Lionel Messi. There will never be another like him.
Davor Šuker on Tuchel's comment that neither England nor France want to play in the match for 3rd place:
"I think the rich don't want to play when they lose. After 1998, when we played the Netherlands for third place, we fought for that bronze medal, and today I can still speak about it with pride. Some people have won so many trophies and are so wealthy that this match means nothing to them.
My message to them is: be quiet, respect all 211 participants, and understand that the world doesn't belong only to them. It belongs to the middle-sized nations, the smaller ones, and to everyone who loves football."
"Whoever wins third place tomorrow, I assure you that in 20 years, when they're older, they'll still remember that bronze medal. That's why, in this whole story, coach Tuchel doesn't matter. He's talking nonsense."
[@tancredipalmeri]