Sergio Ramos is one of the most decorated defenders in the world. At both club and national levels, he has had the fortune of tasting the highest of honors. However, the recent days have been unlikely Ramos, he has undergone continuous injury problems that have ruled him out of much of the season. He is reported to be back for the second leg of Real Madrid’s Champions League semifinal against Chelsea. As we await a much-anticipated return of El Capitan, here are his best five moments of his Champions League career.
5. Debut season and first goal in the Champions League
Sergio Ramos arrived at Real Madrid as a teenager in the summer of 2005 for a deal amounting to 27 million euros, making him the most expensive Spanish defender at the time. He was assigned the number 4 shirt previously worn by Fernando Hierro. Though he had few appearances for Los Blancos in the league, his first goal came in the season’s Champions League campaign.
On December 6, 2005, Real Madrid faced Olympiacos in the group stages of the Champions League, a game where Ramos found the net for the first time for his new club, a European goal nonetheless. Los Blancos eventually went on to lose the game 1-2 at home and Real Madrid’s campaign was limited to the Round of 16.
However, the game remained a monumental one for Ramos as he started his wondrous journey in Europe’s biggest club competition in style. As it is, he would go on to make 128 appearances in the competition for the club (to date) and become a club legend captaining them to 4 titles in the competition, something to talk about later here.
4. First of the four Real Madrid titles as a captain
Ramos captained his side into a vastly successful Champions League campaign in the 2015-16 season. The previous captain, Iker Casillas had left Real Madrid with a glorious tenth European title, La Decima as the obsession is popularly dubbed. They would face their city rivals in a second consecutive final for both sides.
Gareth Bale won a free-kick in a beautiful position in the opening minutes of the half. Toni Kroos sent in an inviting in-swinger that was eventually finished by Sergio Ramos from close range to put Real Madrid 1-0 up within 15 minutes. The moment remains a big one in his career, though it was eventually equalized by Carasco in the dying embers of the match.
Real Madrid eventually were forced to extra-time and then penalties. They won the shoot-outs 5-3 with Cristiano Ronaldo delivering the winning hit. Sergio Ramos then lifted his first Champions League trophy as a captain, a moment both he and us Madridistas remember clear as a crystal.
It was a particularly important match because it started the passage of European dominance for the Whites for 3 consecutive seasons. It eventually became the match that made Sergio Ramos, El Capitan Sergio Ramos, and further consolidated that there was never any doubt for a first choice captain in the team whenever Ramos was available.
3. A performance to remember: semifinals 2014 vs FC Bayern
Ramos’ complete performance in the 2013-14 Champions League semi-final second leg versus Bayern Munich was central to Real Madrid’s stunning 4-0 victory. Not only did he score two headers to seal the tie, but he also put in a splendid defensive shift to help his team earn a clean sheet against the then-reigning champions.
What made Ramos’ performance all the more special was the fact that it came against an opponent that had caused him much heartbreak in the Champions League in years past. What better way to erase those traumatic memories than to put in a masterful performance against Bayern on their own patch?
In the 2011-12 season semi-final, Ramos skied a crucial penalty kick as Real Madrid suffered a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out defeat. Back in 2007, he saw a fantastic stoppage-time winner ruled out for handball as Los Blancos crashed out at the Round of 16 stages at the hands of the Bavarians.
This time, however, Los Blancos were riding on a one-goal advantage from the first leg at Bernabeu. In the second leg, however, Sergio Ramos ruled the pitch. His defensive interventions aside he headed the opener for Los Blancos of a Modric free-kick past, Manuel Neuer. His second goal, again from a headed set-piece sealed the tie with two goals in 4 minutes.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brace shortly after Ramos’s to complete a 5-0 aggregate thrashing of the German giants. A final was finally on the cards after 12 years of hustling as Real completed La Decima, with the big man crucial again in the final. (We will talk about this later.)
2. The Sergio Ramos, Mohamed Salah incident
Perhaps one of the most infamous individual clashes in the Champions League took shape when Real Madrid faced Liverpool in the finals of 2018’s Champions League. The two clubs met again in the recent quarterfinal and the most searched among the individual matchups was Sergio Ramos against Mohamed Salah.
As it happened, Ramos landed awkwardly on Salah’s shoulders after the two collided in the 25th minute of the match. The Egyptian’s night effectively ended as the Liverpool medical staff suspected a dislocation. He was in tears as he left the pitch and Ramos did offer his apologies, it was after all a clear attempt at getting the ball.
The incident however sparked a long series of events through award ceremonies and interviews. Several players also mocked Ramos’s physical aspect of play reminding him of the incident. As it is, this continued being one of the key moments in his Champions League career.
An overshadowed incident in the same game however is that Ramos later collided with the Liverpool keeper Loris Karius giving him a concussion that later resulted decisive in the mistakes he made and Real eventually lifted a third consecutive trophy. After the game, Ramos showed little sympathy, saying, “I am only missing Roberto Firmino saying he got a cold because a drop of my sweat landed on him”.
1. 92.48: La Decima Glory
Ramos’ equalizing goal against Atletico Madrid in the 93rd minute of the 2014 Champions League final is a goal which no Madridista—or Rojiblanco for that matter—will ever forget. The goal forced the game into extra time and Los Blancos cruised their way through added time with two more goals, achieving a tenth European title.
In the dying embers of the game, with Atletico Madrid two minutes away from Champions League glory, Luka Modric took an out-swinging corner kick. Ramos didn’t rush towards the ball, instead smartly timing his run and hesitating for an instant to confuse his marker, before leaping to make contact. The resulting header was simply magnificent, with the ball evading Atletico’s defenders and their giant goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on its way into the net.
It was one of the most dramatic and memorable goals in Champions League history. Once that goal was scored, the result was never really in doubt, with Atletico Madrid’s players exhausted and Real Madrid well and truly in the ascendancy.
Ramos’ header was the single most crucial moment in Real Madrid’s conquest of La Decima, and unquestionably represents the pinnacle of his illustrious club career. Hence, it makes into the list as the most memorable moment in El Capitan’s glorious Champions League career.