At last, a story about Sergio Ramos that has nothing to do with Mo Salah…
Spain kicked off their 2018 World Cup campaign against Portugal on Friday night. It was a lively one, so there’s a good chance you’ve already heard a fair bit about it.
Not for the first time in his career, Cristiano Ronaldo generated most of the headlines. The Real Madrid star scored a hat-trick, sealed with a late equaliser from a free-kick.
Since full-time, most of the talk has (understandably) been about this set piece. With this subsiding over the weekend, some have now pointed to Sergio Ramos’ actions prior to the penalty with which Ronaldo have Portugal an early lead.
The 33-year-old won the spot-kick after drawing a foul from Real Madrid teammate, Nacho. With David De Gea preparing to face the penalty, Ramos – who also plays alongside Ronaldo at the Bernabeu – was spotted giving directions to the goalkeeper, telling him to dive to his right.
Not wanting to disobey a man who’s spent the best part of a decade in the same team as Ronaldo, De Gea followed his advice… only for the penalty to be sent into the opposite corner of his goal.
David De Gea came up to Cristiano with dominant walk to try and put him under some pressure, Cristiano then smiles at him causing De Gea to lose eye contact. Ramos tries to help De Gea by telling him in which direction Cristiano would shoot but then we all know what happened next pic.twitter.com/fL4RoKP6lF
— A🎢 (@binarybeast7) June 17, 2018
Portugal were later pegged back by a Diego Costa goal, but reclaimed the lead shortly before half-time when De Gea fumbled a Ronaldo shot from outside of the penalty area. Costa equalised for a second time after the interval, with Nacho atoning for his earlier error by giving Spain the lead in spectacular fashion.
Spain appeared to be in control of the game in the closing stages, with Jordi Alba appearing to do his best to ebb away a few precious seconds over the taking of a throw-in. This didn’t work out too well for the Barcelona wing-back, with Portugal winning a free-kick shortly after. We all know exactly what happened next.
