Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos has hit back at his former Spain teammate Gerard Pique after he suggested Los Blancos are La Liga title favourites because VAR and refereeing decisions go their way.
Pique’s Barcelona came into the restart after lockdown on top, but Real have won every game since. They are now in the driving seat, and Ramos’ former defensive partner believes it’ll be tough to usurp them.
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“There’s a lot of noise in the media because we’re leaders again,” he said.
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“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.”
“I’ve always said this is a team game at the end of the day,” he explained.
Zinedine Zidane’s side maintained their pace with a 2-0 win over Real Mallorca on Wednesday night.
Ramos became the league’s highest defender by getting on the scoresheet at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano. But he insists he isn’t thinking about personal records, focusing instead on the team.
“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.”