Real Madrid should have appealed Sergio Ramos’ red card to UEFA
By Ben Sundock
As it stands, Real Madrid will be without captain Sergio Ramos in the Ethiad Stadium for the Champions League round of 16 second leg in March. Why did the club elect not to appeal the red card?
As Real Madrid limped to its second consecutive home defeat in the UCL knockout stage, one moment insensed Madridistas around the world.
Fans watched in agony as Gabriel Jesus went bounding in on Thibaut Courtois and the Madrid goal in the final four minutes of regular time with Manchester City in front 2-1. A ‘bump’ or some invisible object seemed to hit Jesus as he reached the top of the box and he crashed to the grass with Ramos trailing closely behind.
Head referee Daniele Orsato went directly for his back pocket and showed the Real Madrid number four a red card. Mind you, Ramos had not received a yellow card prior to the infraction and this, in fact, was the first foul he was whistled for in the entire match.
After rumors began to swirl that Real Madrid was going to appeal the decision, I was truly shocked to hear they were moving on without putting up much of a fight
Fans should be frustrated that the club decided to let the decision stand as the evidence that there was no foul outweighs that of it actually being a foul.
Although Jesus was in alone on goal, the contact from Sergio is so minimal and the reaction from Jesus is so overexaggerated, I thought when Orsato ran in to make the call it would be yellow for Gabriel Jesus for diving.
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Plus, when comparing the “red card offense” from Ramos to a challenge made by Kyle Walker on Vinicius Junior earlier in the match, it makes it even more frustrating that the referee decided to take matters into his own hands like that with the fixture still very much up for grabs.
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Another piece of evidence Real Madrid will likely use as part of their defense is the decision from the officials to not have a look at VAR before the decision was made official.
Why did the video assistant referee not want to have a word with Daniele Orsato on such an important decision in an important match? It’s not like Sergio Ramos slid into Jesus from behind or grabbed his jersey deliberately, Ramos barely made contact with any part of the striker’s body!
To end my rant, I want to remind you all of the two challenges Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo made on Vinicius and Luka Modric in the first half.
The first incident occurred when Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger single-handily started a counter-attack down the sideline after a City corner was cleared. In the 21st minute, Rodrigo was beaten cleanly by Vini’s pace, so he elected to grab his jersey and take the foul.
There was no yellow card shown here, it was just a warning given out by the Italian ref. So that had to be his last caution before receiving a card, right?
No. Not 15 minutes later, the Spanish midfielder slid up the legs of Modric and harshly tackled the Croatian to the turf. Modric screamed in pain and the replay showed plenty of evidence that there was foul play, but once again, the official simply awarded a free-kick and let Rodrigo stay on the pitch.
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Sergio should never have been sent off for this incident. Though the defender is known for making some questionable tackles and has been sent off plenty of times in his career, this should not have been one of those times.
Vinicius Junior seemed to agree with my argument in the post-match press conference, aggressively saying, “They [the referees] always treat us the same here. In the match against Levante, a yellow card for Sergio [Ramos] for his first foul isn’t normal. Do they give us bad calls? Yes. We’re the team with the most Champions League and league [titles]. It’s always going to be like that.”
Let’s hope that despite his lack of appearances in recent months, Eder Militao can help Raphael Varane prevent Manchester City from scoring at all in the second leg.