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Pierluigi Collina reckons Sergio Ramos deserved another crack at the penalty in the Croatia match as the shot he had taken originally was wrongly stopped by the opposition goalie.

Danijel Subasic was in charge of the goal post of Croatia in that particular match and moved forward way too earlier than he should have. His feet were actually ahead of the goal-line even before Ramos had made any contact with the ball.

The soccer rulebook does not allow a goalie to do so and so the save was clearly invalid, but, the main referee or even the linesmen failed to take note of it and it went down in the papers as a missed penalty.

The conversion of that penalty might have given Spain a victory over Croatia. It was one-all at that point of time and it could have proven to be a winner which could have set up Croatia’s meeting with Italy rather than Spain’s.

According to Collina, not always do the goalies happen to be out of positions when the penalty kicks are executed. Most of the time, they remain where they should be and thus, it is understandable why the referee, on that occasion, was not too keen on keeping an eye on the feet of the Croatian goalie, but, because of the fact that penalties are enormously important, a referee must always be alert and ensure that neither of the goalie or the shot taker is breaking any rule.

Collina, the supremo of the match officials who work under the Union of European Football Associations, however also believes that the players should have the knowledge of the rules themselves as the match officials at work can’t be telling each one of them what the rules are.

Real Madrid captain and defender, Sergio Ramos played decent football as the club make final push for the La Liga title this season.

Real Madrid kept their La Liga title hopes alive until the final fixture of the season with a vital victory over Valencia at the Santiago Bernabeu. The victory was much more cherised as Atletico Madrid blew their chance at the title as they lost. League leaders, Barcelona won their in style, pushing the league competition to the last round of games.

The game for Madrid was also became the stadium’s farewell to Alvaro Arbeloa. This event somehow distracted both the squad and the fans, as what was a key match for the title race became a leaving do for the hosts well before the final whistle.

For this match, coach Zinedine Zidane missed four starters: Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Daniel Carvajal and Keylor Navas did not even make the bench due to minor injuries. The improvised lineup worked out well for the Frenchman in the first 45 minutes, but his second half substitutions and a revived Valencia forced Real Madrid to struggle mightily to grind out a win.

The La Liga title will be decided next weekend. Barcelona, with a one-point advantage plus the tiebreaker, travel to Granada. Real Madrid, at La Coruna, will have to win their match and hope Barcelona do not win theirs.

Ramos played much better than he was in previous months. He was Real Madrid’s last man standing on several occasions in the second half, Casilla’s only help against Valencia’s front line.

He would need more of such decent performance to help their new coach lift a trophy in his first season in charge as they have the UEFA Champions League also to contend for.

Real Madrid had to settle with a goal-less draw against Manchester City as both clubs faced off on April 26 in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

The 1rst leg was played in the home stadium of Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium and it would’ve been a huge advantage for Real Madrid if they had managed to score an away goal but it did not happen.

Sergio Ramos is the captain of the Spanish club and as one of the main figures of Real Madrid, the experienced defender took the chance to voice his thoughts and things that occurred during their Champions League match against Manchester City.

‘’We are happy for the reaction of the team in the second half. We had more ball possession and created a lot of chances. Everything will be at stake in the second leg. We’ll play in our stadium with the support of our fans, if we knew that at the beginning of the season, we would have taken it.’’

‘’Playing away we would have liked to score. It wasn’t possible but the team felt more comfortable in the second half. We kept the ball better and created chances even though we weren’t lucky enough to finish. But I’m happy with the team’s attitude and for the way we delivered. Our last chance will be at home.’’ Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos said as he talked after drawing against Manchester City in the first leg of the semi-finals against Manchester City.

Cristiano Ronaldo was absent from this match due to injury as well as KarimBenzema and both of them still haven’t been confirmed for the 2nd leg. The 2nd leg of the semi-finals will be played on March 4. The Champions League is the priority competition that Real Madrid is aiming to win in this season and ZinedineZidane will try to do everything in his power to seal his first Champions League title as a manager.

After an unlikely victory over archrivals Barcelona at the camp Nou, defender Sergio Ramos insists that Real Madrid are still in the title race.

The two teams had a huge gap of 10 points coming into the match with Barcelona running away with the title. Their unbeaten run of more than 35 games came to an end after the 2-1 defeat. The victory for Real Madrid was achieved with 10 men after Ramos was given a second yellow card. Due to these reasons, there is a lot of positivity around Madrid at the moment. Ramos reckons that the club can utilise this feeling and aim for the title in the final few matches of the campaign.

Madrid will have to rely upon Barcelona dropping points and the Catalan club being involved in the Champions League can help them in this regard. Barcelona are up against Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals of the European competition while Madrid have a much easier fixture against Wolfsburg. Manager Zinedine Zidane, though, will want Ramos to change his mentality especially against the top opposition. The defender has already been sent off 20 times in his Madrid career. His record is especially poor when it comes to games against archrivals Barcelona.

Rather than concentrating on the league, Madrid may also look to winning the 11th European cup. “Now we’re seven points behind, there will be people who consider La Liga closer and a possibility. As long as there is a chance, and as long as there are points available, Real Madrid must fight. They are three important points gained on Barcelona, our strongest rival, and it’s great for us mentally going into the final stage of the season. The pride and commitment the boys showed when they went a man down fills you with satisfaction. This victory tastes glorious,” said Ramos.

Zinedine Zidane reckons his boys were a bit unlucky to be held to a 1-1 result at Benito Villamarin.
This was the first instance of Madrid dropping points since Zidane has taken over.

In each of his first couple of games in charge, Zidane had seen the Blancos scoring 5 goals and winning by a big gap.

Things were not predicted to be any different against Real Betis either.

Betis had been one of the most out of form teams in La Liga lately and there were minimal chances of them posting any kind of challenge to Madrid.

But, people found themselves in for a shocker pretty early as Betis scored the opener in just the 7th minute.

However, they could not make the most of that and failed to keep Madrid under pressure.
Madrid’s possession percentage was much higher in comparison to Betis at every stage of the game and they were always looking the better team

The Whites could not find the leveller for a long time though, and had to wait till the 71st minute for that when the old fox Karim Benzema eventually came up with a beauty to make it 1-1.

It was, however, disappointing from Madrid’s point of view that they could not sneak another goal in thereafter to collect the full points. They had opportunities, but, they let them go begging.

According to Zidane, the game is all about taking the opportunities which Madrid was not able to do and fortune didn’t favour them either on occasions.

The manager was quoted as saying, “It’s never easy for the opponent teams over here with such an enormous crowd, but, I think, what cost us is the fact that we lapsed a little bit in the beginning of the game.”

“However, seeing it on an overall basis, I feel we were slightly unlucky as well.”

Real Madrid’s injury situation has worsened after defender Sergio Ramos has been ruled out for around five weeks due to a hamstring injury.

Carlo Ancelotti has seen his squad strength deplete substantially over the last few weeks. A number of players have been unavailable due to suspension and injury.

Even though he is set to welcome key players like Luka Modric back from the sidelines after a long time, the absence of Ramos may prove to be very crucial aspect as the season unfolds. Madrid have two crucial matches during this period with a Madrid Derby against Atletico Madrid and a Champions League tie against Schalke.

The recent wobbles shown by the team can be magnified in the absence of Ramos, who has been more than just a defender. The former Sevilla man has come up with crucial goals when the team needed the most. The 28-year-old recently became one of first defenders to score in three major cup finals during the course of a calendar year. The absence of Ramos may force Ancelotti into using the yen Rafael Varane and Nacho Fernandez more often than not. Madrid have managed 4 consecutive victories in all competitions since the 2-2 draw against Atletico in the Copa del Rey.

“Following tests carried out on Sergio Ramos by the Real Madrid medical service at the Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital, the player has been diagnosed with a torn hamstring in his left leg. His progress will be monitored,” said a statement on the club site.”Ramos’ injury is serious. He will be out for the next five weeks, but I believe in Nacho and Varane.They are good players and have plenty of enthusiasm,” said Carlo Ancelotti in a press conference. After the Madrid derby against Atletico this weekend, it is straight into the Champions League knockout stages for Madrid.

The preparation is certainly necessary for a player to take part in a match. No matter which sport it is, a player must be fully prepared before walking out there in the playing arena.

But, sometimes, you are forced to think- is this term ‘preparation’ overrated?

There have been instances when certain players have not appeared to be prepared at all to go into the game and yet not only have they participated in the game, they have produced outstanding performances.

People who had been following the build up to the final of the Club World Cup were almost sure that Sergio Ramos would not feature for Real Madrid versus San Lorenzo.

The defender had travelled with the squad to Morocco, but, he had not been seen in the training sessions.

But, came the hour, came the man. Ramos was in the ground ahead of that final game, still hurting by that hammy injury of his. He had the ice-pack on for a while. But, keeping all that aside, he was up for the occasion. He had not done his preparations; still, he was ready to go.

He went out there for Madrid and he proved to be the man for the Whites.

With a breathtaking header in the 37th minute of the match, he took Madrid ahead and it was way too much of a task for Lorenzo to come back thereafter.

Ramos’ celebration after that goal suggested how much he wanted himself to rise to that big occasion.

The 28-year old had shaken the net in the Round of 4 too versus the Mexican club Cruz Azul.
Ramos ended up being named the player of the tournament and deservedly so. For a defender to score two in two; it was remarkable.

Sergio Ramos is on the radar of the English club Manchester City. If the information passed on by the sources close to the club is true, then, Manuel Pellegrini, the man in charge, would be placing an official bid for the 28-year old this winter.
The Sky Blues are planning to offer Ramos an annual salary of about 8 million Pounds to lure him to England. That’s quite an astonishing number.
Chelsea will surely not let City having this deal easily. They will try hard too for the player.
Chelsea had enquired for Ramos the previous winter as well according to the reports which, one can assume, were true as Ramos’ representative had made a claim later on that an English team had come to him with a big offer.
The exact words of the representative in that interview of his are as follows-
“I don’t want to reveal their name, but, I would like to confirm that they’re from England only.”
“Yes, the amount offered was very, very high, but, the player is happy at where he is currently and he is no mood to leave at this point of time. So, I had no choice but to humbly turn the offer down.”
These statements of Ramos’ agent named Rene, who is actually also the Spaniard’s brother, led to the rumours that the unrevealed club was Chelsea.
However, no explanation came from Chelsea’s side on those rumours.
Ramos spent his teenage years at Sevilla learning the soccer skills, but, he did not play much for them. Only at the age of 19, he was possessed by Madrid and he made his name as a World Class defender at Santiago Bernabeu only. He has 415 Madrid caps to his name thus far.

Sergio Ramos was present in the wedding ceremony of Rene, his sibling, last week. He had made his way into the ceremony with his girlfriend Rubio who has recently become the mother of his child.

Ramos was quite relaxed and happy with his family members there. He has obviously seen a bit of a tough time of late with the Spanish national squad, but, it appears that he has moved on from that disappointment now.

The same day, on his twitter account, Ramos uploaded a snap in which he was with his mum as well as Rene. There was immense happiness on the face of the Real Madrid defender.

The name of the girl with whom Rene got married is Vania Millan. She has been Miss Spain in the past.

Ramos might get married himself pretty soon. There have been rumours that he and Rubio have been planning to become husband-wife officially now after the birth of their little one.

There is a 7-year age difference between Ramos and Rubio. While, the former is only 28 at the moment, the latter is in his mid thirties.

Rubio is a renowned personality in Spain. She has presented a lot of programmes on the Spanish television in the last one decade or so.

The pair of Ramos-Rubio is widely liked in Spain and that’s obvious because both of them look so good together and they care for each other immensely too.

Recently in a television programme, Ramos had sung a romantic song for Rubio and had played the guitar as well after which the TV presenter had got really emotional and couldn’t stop her tears.
She was pleasantly surprised by that sweet gesture of his boyfriend.
Ramos and Rubio have been together since a long time.

The 28 years old Spanish defender of Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos is a persistent starter for the club despite what manager arrives. He has played during some of the worst time of Madrid as well as some of their best and their recent Copa del Rey victory against Barcelona has been hailed by Ramos to be as a ‘magical moment’ as he spoke to the media when the match was over.

“Today is a magical day. It requires a lot of effort to win titles and this is the fruit of our labor, a reward for all our sacrifice during the year. It is a hugely important title. It was a very tense match and now we have to enjoy the victory because Real Madrid is once again the champion,” Ramos said.

The Copa del Rey was the first silverware that Carlo Ancelotti has secured in his debut season in charge of Real Madrid. Despite all of the tension that surrounds Real Madrid and Barcelona as they have an eternal rivalry which has been displayed on a number of occasions in the pitch when red cards and even punches has been displayed when they play each other, there also exists certain friendships around some players.

Almost 1 month ago was the birthday of Sergio Ramos as he turned 30 years old and there was a rather surprising congratulations message which arrived through Barcelona’s Jordi Alba.

“Today is the birthday of someone who has helped me a great deal. Many happy returns, Sergio Ramos!! All the best, superstar! Alba tweeted.