Ramos: People shouldn’t be imagining things about Real Madrid and referees

Sergio Ramos says people “shouldn’t be imagining things” when it comes to Real Madrid benefitting from decisions in an apparent riposte towards Gerard Pique and Barcelona.

Zinedine Zidane’s side moved back to the top of La Liga by virtue of their superior head-to-head record on Wednesday with a 2-0 win over Real Mallorca, thanks to goals from Ramos and Vinicius Junior.

Madrid reclaimed top spot after La Liga’s return this month due to Barcelona’s 0-0 draw with Sevilla last Friday, after which Pique suggested it would be hard to stop Los Blancos winning the title because VAR and referee decisions too often go their way.

Ramos, though, thinks such arguments are only being made now that Madrid have the edge in the title race.

“There’s a lot of noise in the media because we’re leaders again,” he told Movistar. “They didn’t talk so much before. They talk about VAR, but I don’t think anyone has an advantage over the season.

“We don’t pay attention to this noise. I don’t think they [the referees] take any predetermined decisions. It seems like we should be thanking the refs for being leaders! People shouldn’t be imagining things.

“We’ve been working hard and since the lockdown, we’ve been united, and we deserve to be where we are.”

Ramos became the top-scoring defender in La Liga history against Real Sociedad last week and his goal on Wednesday, his 69th in the top flight, made him the first defender to reach eight in a single season since Ezequiel Garay 13 years ago.

However, the Madrid captain remains far more concerned with team performances and admitted they felt tired as the Mallorca match went on.

“I’ve always said this is a team game at the end of the day,” he said. “The personal side makes you feel proud and motivates you but it’s secondary. The most important thing is the consistency of the team. It’s a job well done and three more points. 

“The team was tired, we felt that. Obviously, we don’t have long to recover between games, and we have to continue improving. We all know what our objective is but there are plenty of things we can improve.

“Our play stagnated a little at times, but I think we can generally improve in all aspects. We could have put the game to bed earlier and taken more chances, played with the ball in their half. That’s what we want to do: we want to dominate more.”