Congratulations are in order
Real Madrid’s recent resurgence came to a brutal end this afternoon, as Girona snatched a 2-1 victory at the Bernabéu, despite the hosts taking an early lead through Casemiro.
Goals from Christhian Stuani and Portu turned the match in Girona’s favour and the Catalan underdogs managed to hold on for all three points, joining Real Sociedad, Levante, Villarreal, Barcelona and Real Betis on the list of teams to have beaten Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the league in the last two seasons.
As the clock ran down and Madrid became more desperate for an equaliser, captain Sergio Ramos, as he does, decided to go up top and play as a forward for the last few minutes. In that time, he attempted the spectacular, with an audacious overhead kick. The only thing is, he missed the ball, and very nearly took a large chunk out of a Girona player’s face.
This high foot earned him a second yellow card and thus a red, which makes him the first player in LaLiga history to rack up 20 red cards. And you’d expect that to rise by a few more before he retires.
90' | 1-2 | Second yellow card for @SergioRamos. We'll finish the match with ten men. #RMLiga
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) February 17, 2019
The notorious shithouse and world class defender has long been associated with picking up cards. His aggressive style of defending will inevitably result in him picking up a lot of yellows, but 20 reds is seriously impressive.
Incredibly, the Spaniard did not pick up one single red card in 2018, initially breaking the league record in December 2017, overtaking Pablo Alfaro and Xavi Aguado, both of whom were dismissed 18 times.
He now holds the record for:
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most yellow cards in LaLiga
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most red cards in LaLiga
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most yellow cards in the Spanish National Team
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most yellow cards for Real Madrid
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most yellow cards across the European Top-5-Leagues
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most yellow cards in the Champions League
He will not, however, miss either of the upcoming Clásicos against Barcelona, due to the fact that this red came as a result of two yellow cards. He will serve a one match ban, and will miss a league game against Levante.
Ramos could also be handed an extra game ban by Uefa, if he is found guilty of intentionally picking up a yellow card against Ajax in order to rule himself out of the second leg, cleaning his record for the quarter-finals.
