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Sergio Ramos defends himself: 'I wanted to force a foul, not a booking'

Sergio Ramos defends himself: 'I wanted to force a foul, not a booking'

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos has defended his statement about deliberately getting yellow-carded in the first leg of the Los Blancos' game against Ajax in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

While UEFA have opened investigations into what the Spaniard said, Ramos has come out to defend what he had said and what exactly he meant when he did indeed get yellow-carded to make sure he would play the first leg of the next round.

He told Marca: "I'm surprised about all this, I meant to have forced the foul, a foul that was inevitable, not to have forced the booking. I knew I was risking a card and a disqualification, but I had no alternative.

"88 minutes, with a game and a qualification still open, so I said that I would have lied if I said I did not know how to take a disqualification, as I knew I had no other option to do it.

"If I wanted to force the ban, I could have done it in the group stage, in the match against Roma because we were already qualified as first in the group and the last match with CSKA was irrelevant, a match for which I have not been summoned."