Ramos played his cards wrong. UEFA flush him out with 2-game ban

March 1 – Cheats never prosper – as Sergio Ramos has found to his cost after being handed a two-game ban by UEFA “for clearly receiving a yellow card on purpose” during Real Madrid’s Champions League tie at Ajax.

The Real captain was yellow-carded in the 89th minute of the 2-1 victory in Amsterdam, his third booking of the tournament which meant he would be suspended from the second leg in the Spanish capital on March 5. Had he been booked in the second leg instead, he would have automatically been ruled out of the first leg of the quarters.

But UEFA opened an investigation and gave him with an additional one-match ban for obtaining a booking deliberately.

Now, should Champions League holders Real progress to the last eight, he would be unavailable for the first leg of that tie too.

UEFA said Ramos had deliberately aimed of being clear for a potential quarter-final tie. They set a precedent last season when Real full-back Dani Carvajal was suspended for two games after initially earning a booking in the group stage.

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