Sergio Ramos, the Real Madrid captain, has dismissed suggestions that he was to blame for the challenge that hurt Liverpool’s Egyptian, Mohamed Salah, in the Champions League final.
Salah left the field in tears after injuring his left shoulder in a tussle with Ramos with the score 0-0 in the first half of the final between Real Madrid and Liverpool in Kiev. Madrid went on to win the match 3-1 and their third straight European title, with Ramos also accused of deliberately elbowing Loris Karius – an incident that is believed to have caused the goalkeeper to suffer concussion.
But the 32-year-old, who is preparing to play in his fourth World Cup finals with Spain, insisted he has been unfairly castigated. “I am only missing Roberto Firmino saying he got a cold because a drop of my sweat landed on him,” he told Spanish newspaper AS.
“Bloody hell, they have given this Salah thing a lot of attention. I didn’t want to speak because everything is magnified. I remember the play well: he grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold. After that the goalkeeper said I dazed him with a clash.
Ramos added: “I spoke with Salah through messages. He was quite good. He could have played on if he got an injection for the second half, I have done it sometimes but when Ramos does something like this, it sticks a little bit more.
“I don’t know if it is because you are at Madrid for so long and win for so long that people look at it a different way.”
