Sergio Ramos is well and truly in the debate for the greatest defender of all-time and the performance he put in against Bayern Munich shows exactly that.Flashback to 2014, it’s the semi-final of the Champions League - Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich. Los Blancos had come away with a narrow 1-0 victory in the first leg, but now they’d have to travel deep into the lion’s den for a tricky away tie. The Allianz Arena of Bavaria awaited them…It was Pep Guardiola’s first year in charge of the German outfit, who had claimed Champions League glory the year previous against their arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund, not to mention thumping Barcelona 7-0 across two legs on route.Meanwhile, Madrid hadn’t reached the final since they last won the competition in 2002 and wanted so badly to end their conquest for ‘La Decima’. The coveted 10th Champions League trophy. A feat unheard of in club football.Step up, Sergio Ramos. The no-nonsense defender delivered 90 minutes of sheer perfection against the formidable German team; he was nothing short of an impenetrable wall deflecting back anything that came towards the Madrid goal.Yet, it wasn’t just his defensive exploits that earnt him the glory that night. Two headed goals before the half-hour mark effectively put the tie beyond the reach of Bayern and secured Madrid’s passage to Benfica for the final.
Big players thrive in big games – and we all know what happened in the final…
As Madrid trailed by a single goal to city rivals Atletico and the game was deep into injury time, they needed a hero. Who stepped up? Who else…
Luka Modric whipped the ball in from the corner and Ramos rose into the sky before firing a bullet header into the bottom left corner from 12-yards.
From that point it was inevitable that Madrid would go on to lift the trophy and they did so in impressive fashion, scoring three injury time goals and eventually running out 4-1 winners to the sheer delight of the Madridistas.
The two matches were arguably the crowning moments of a glittering Real Madrid career for Ramos which spanned an impressive 16 seasons. The Spaniard won 22 major honours with the club and scored a total of 101 goals along the way.
Three words: what a player.