Peter Crouch reveals the moment he almost lost it with Real Madrid's Marcelo

As one of the most affable figures in football, it's difficult to imagine Peter Crouch ever losing his cool.

But the former striker has admitted the one player that did get on his nerves during a career spanning 21 years.

During his second spell at Tottenham, Crouch was part of Harry Redknapp's side that took the Champions League by storm, delivering memorable performances against Inter Milan, before knocking out their rivals AC Milan in the last-16.

However, it was against Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid where their European odyssey came to a halt in the quarter-final stages, with a 4-0 first-leg defeat at the Bernabeu delivering the telling blow to them advancing any further.

That match saw Crouch sent off in the first half after two bookings in quick succession. And the 39-year-old has spoken of his desire to deliver a blow of his own after the antics of full-back Marcelo.

Speaking on Paddy Power's From the Horses Mouth podcast, Crouch said: 'The dressing room is underneath the stadium and there are tiers upon tiers of fans and you can hear them. I'm sat in the dressing room with a towel over my head, hearing goal after goal after goal going in and I'm thinking: 'that's down to me'. That was a low point and a big regret.

'I do have a little excuse when it comes to the cards though. The first one was me being excitable, so I can give the referee that. It was a tackle on Sergio Ramos.

'For the second one, I went to block a ball down the line from Marcelo and I did dive in a bit, but I didn't touch him.

'He's jumped up in the air and rolled around, and there is a camera angle where you can see he looks at the referee and he celebrates as the red card comes out then he jumps back up.'

Rather than the red card or the dive, it was the Brazilian's celebration while sat on the floor that really wound up the former England star.

'I’ve never wanted to punch anyone more in my life!' he added. 'For them, that was seen as a win.

'They’ve won the game and they played me. I was naive to let myself get caught up in that.'