Sergio Ramos has finally spoken about his fight with Lionel Messi during the El Clasico, which ensued after the Real Madrid captain elbowed the Barca star.
Barcelona registered their fourth successive La Liga win at Santiago Bernabeu over Real Madrid last night.
Barca also secured their third victory against the arch-rivals across all competitions this season. The side defeated Santiago Solari’s men 1-0 with Ivan Rakitic’s goal making the sole difference in the game.
Rakitic and defender Gerard Pique were key to Barcelona’s victory as both put out a solid performance to keep Real Madrid at bay.
With this win, Barcelona have extended their lead at the top of the table to 10 points over the second-placed Atletico, and 12 points over Real.
The last night’s game between the two sides turned nasty at the brink of halftime when a fight ensued between Sergio Ramos and Lionel Messi. The Real Madrid captain elbowed Messi on his face and the Argentinian retaliated, leading to a head-to-head confrontation between both the captains.
Lionel Messi later showed the referee that his tooth bled due to the challenge from Ramos.
In the second half of the game, the Barcelona players turned rather hostile towards Sergio Ramos as Clement Lenglet and Marc Andre ter-Stegen landed a punch on Ramos’ face while defending.
After the game, Sergio Ramos hit out at Lionel Messi on the incident and insisted that his elbow on Lionel Messi wasn’t intentional. The Spanish defender implied that Messi took the tackle “badly.”
“These things happen,” Ramos said about his bust-up with Lionel Messi.
“I didn’t mean to catch him but he has taken it badly, and stayed down on the pitch.”
He also talked about Barcelona’s performance in the game and whether it had been a nightmare to face the league leaders.
“No! But it is true that the other day, despite dominating the tie, here just as in the Camp Nou, that football is all about scoring goals and we did not have it,” Ramos said.
“We had a good opportunity in the league game and now we just have to congratulate them. It was not sufficient to just play well.”
With the win last night, Barcelona now leads in the overall record for the wins against Real Madrid for the first time in 87 years between the two sides.
Real are yet to beat Barcelona this season, having lost three of their four games against the arch-rivals. Barca defeated Real 5-1 in the first league El Clasico of the season at Camp Nou.
After suffering another loss to their arch-rivals, Real Madrid’s only reasonable chance of a silverware comes from the Champions League. The round-of-16 tie against Ajax, however, is poised for a close finish.
Real Madrid did secure a 2-1 win over the Dutch side, but Ajax were comprehensively better than the European champions. The Spanish side received a further setback ahead of the second leg in the form of a suspension to Sergio Ramos.
UEFA suspended the Real Madrid captain for two games for admitting to deliberately go for a foul during the game against Ajax. He will miss the first leg of the quarterfinal if Real qualifies for the next round.
Barcelona too, are far from ensuring a place in the quarterfinals as their first leg of the tie against Lyon ended in a goalless draw.
However, the side looks on course to complete its second consecutive domestic double as Barca reached the final of the Copa del Rey earlier this week. The Catalan giants will take on Valencia in the final.
With 14 games still to go in the league, a ten-point cushion at the top of the table puts Barcelona in pole position to lift the La Liga title.
