EXCLUSIVE
Geoff Shreeves reveals text message Chelsea legend Branislav Ivanovic sent him after winning the Europa League
Branislav Ivanovic and Geoff Shreeves had one of football's most awkward interviews - but the pair were laughing just a year later.
Shreeves spent many years working with Sky Sports and was on hand to cover Chelsea's Champions League semi-final clash with Barcelona in 2012.
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A 2-2 draw for the Blues at the Nou Camp was enough to see the Londoners into the Champions League final thanks to a 3-2 aggregate win - a victory came as a result of Lionel Messi's late penalty miss.
In the build-up to that spot-kick, Ivanovic had tried to make life hard for football's GOAT by scuffing up the penalty spot, something that clearly paid off.
However among the chaotic build-up to the kick, the Serbian star was handed a booking for his efforts, a card that would see him miss Chelsea's appearance in the final that year.
But such was the innocuous nature of the booking, Shreeves didn't have chance to confirm what had happened, leading to an awkward post-match interview.
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“Branislav, can you clear one thing up, for us,” Shreeves asked. “Were you booked after the penalty?”
After confirming, Shreeves replied: "You know that means you’re out of the final now?”
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Confused, Ivanovic replied: "I don’t know," before Shreeves confirmed: "Unfortunately that means you don’t play in the final," leading the no-nonsense defender close to tears on the pitch.
Explaining the incident to Shaun Custis on Sunday Edition, Shreeves said: “The problem was I wasn’t actually sure if he was going to miss the final!
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“We didn’t know if he’d actually been booked. He scuffed up the penalty spot and it was away, we weren’t sure and he just got shoved along the interview line with Ashley Cole and Petr Cech and I didn’t know.
“I couldn’t say ‘it’s great you’re in the final’ because he might turn and say to me ‘what are you on about, you fool, I’m not in the final’ and I couldn’t say ‘you’re not playing, are you’ because I wasn’t sure!
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“It meant that we had this horrible, confused interview in which I tried to gently say ‘you do realise that if you were booked…’ but he didn’t have the demeanour of someone who knew he wasn’t playing in the final.
“Anyway, it was years later that we found out the Chelsea management hadn’t reminded the players who were on yellows – he’d celebrated on the pitch and in the dressing room and it was only when he got on the team bus that he looked at his phone and realised he wasn’t playing.
“Could I have handled it better? Yes.”
Ivanovic's disappointment was clear for all to see after Shreeves broke his hopes playing in Europe's biggest match, but 12 months later Ivanovic got his redemption.
Making it to the Europa League final in 2013, Ivanovic scored an injury time winner to see off Benfica in the final - a moment that led Shreeves to reach out to the defender.
Shreeves said: "I messaged him and said ‘thank god, you’ll be remembered as a Chelsea hero’ which he was anyway because he was a great servant to the club.
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“I said ‘you’ll be remembered more for that than that so-and-so interview’ and he just replied with laughing emojis.”
While he might have missed out on playing in the 2012 Champions League victory, Ivanovic won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and a League Cup along with his Champions League and Europa League medals.
He may have had his heartbroken on national TV, but as Shreeves said, the Serbian will always be a Chelsea legend.
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