MADRID, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid defender and captain Sergio Ramos could face a two-game ban after admitting that he deliberately provoked the yellow card in the closing minutes of his side's 2-1 win away to Ajax on Wednesday night.
With Madrid winning 2-1 following Marco Asensio's winning goal, Ramos, who was making his 600th appearance for the club, saw a yellow card for a bad challenge on Dolberg and that booking means he will be suspended for the return leg where Ajax need to score twice to have a chance of qualifying, but with a clean slate of bookings for the quarterfinals.
Ramos admitted he had deliberately got booked when he commented in a post-game interview that "seeing the result, I'd be lying if I said I didn't provoke it, it's something I had in mind. It's not to underestimate the rival, but in football you have to make complicated decisions and I decided to do that."
Deliberately forcing a booking to bring on a suspension is against UEFA rules and carries a two-game suspension and perhaps Ramos had been warned of that when he tried to retract those words in a later social media post.
"In a game with a lot of tension and feeling and excitement, you have to make a decision in seconds. The best thing about today is the result. The worst is that I won't be able to play in the return leg with my teammates for an action in the game."
"I want to make it clear that it hurts me more than anyone, and that I didn't look for the card," commented Ramos.
