Sergio Ramos could have moved to Liga MX aspect Monterrey, however the infamous former Actual Madrid and Spain defender continues to be getting concerned in all types of headline-grabbing antics.
The 39-year-old picked up pink card No. 30 of his membership profession final month in solely his fourth match in Mexico, and final weekend he was concerned in a weird bout of thoughts video games round his different nice space of experience: penalty kicks.
Early within the second half of Saturday’s conflict at Tigres, Monterrey have been awarded a penalty, and with it a golden likelihood for his or her spot-kick knowledgeable to attain the opening purpose of the sport. Ramos — who had scored every of his final 21 penalties at membership stage — stepped up, positioned the ball on the spot and readied himself to shoot, solely to be met by the sight of Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán making an attempt some completely baffling diversionary ways.
As Ramos rigorously mapped out his run-up and visualized his shot from 12 yards, Guzmán stood on the purpose line along with his again to his opponent along with his arms splayed out and easily refused to show round. Cue greater than a minute of confusion as Ramos flashed quizzical appears to be like on the match officers.
Regardless of having remodeled 1,000 profession appearances and successful nearly all there may be to win in skilled soccer, Ramos had clearly by no means needed to deal with Guzmán’s explicit model of pre-penalty shenanigans earlier than and had no thought what the proper protocol may be. After what felt like an eternity of forcing Ramos to stare bewilderedly at his shirt quantity, the Tigres keeper then modified issues up and started prancing up and down his line, waving his arms in an extra try and distract the Monterrey captain.
Ramos then determined to get entangled within the pantomime himself and motioned to Guzmán that he was going to aim a Panenka-style penalty, one thing at which he has proved adept over time. A number of extra agonizing moments handed earlier than Guzmán then turned his again as soon as once more in a closing try and disrupt Ramos’ preparations.
Sadly for Guzmán, his choice to delay the taking of the penalty for over 90 seconds proved to have little impact on Ramos, who calmly swept the ball into the underside nook earlier than charging off in celebration.
For all of his failed chicanery, Guzmán nonetheless managed to have the final snort. Monterrey held their slim lead till stoppage time, at which level Tigres hit again with two late objectives from Sebastián Córdova and Nicolás Ibáñez to pilfer a dramatic 2-1 victory.
Simply so as to add to the drama, there have been three gamers despatched off within the second half on the Estadio Universitario. By some miracle, given his monitor report, Ramos was not one in all them.
With simply two rounds of video games left within the Clausura championship, Monterrey are ninth with 22 factors whereas Tigres are fourth with 29, 4 factors behind leaders Toluca.
