Sergio Ramos the great - but not the good

“The third year is fatal,” Bela Guttmann, who led Benfica to the European Cup in 1961 and 1962, often said.

Guttmann, a footballing pioneer, cautioned that after a three-year cycle, inertia set in; that any side, no matter how great, would become beset by its own overfamiliarity.

It is a theory that still holds some weight, particularly considering the cycles that tend to permeate the top table of European football. When was the last time a side dominated European football in the way Real Madrid are right now?

Barcelona have had a trophy-laden decade or so, having won four Champions Leagues over a nine-year span between 2006 and 2015, but, within that period, there were different coaches and different sides.

Madrid have just won four out of the last five. Zinedine Zidane has never been knocked out of Europe - this Madrid side are redefining dominance. Their place among the pantheon of greats is cemented.

Put simply, when it matters this Madrid side know how to win, and no one - not even Cristiano Ronaldo – embodies that more than Sergio Ramos. He embodies the hunger that is most striking about this Real Madrid team.

That hunger manifested itself in a last-minute thunderous headed leveller against Atletico Madrid in the 2014 final that set in motion a 4-1 comeback win and a dynasty that shows no signs of slowing.

Ramos has an insatiable hunger for success which can, at times, manifest itself in incidents less palatable than towering headers. There was the late-game simulation, while leading Juventus 3-1 in last year’s final, that saw Juan Cuadrado sent off.

With a two-goal advantage and the game heading towards full-time, Ramos’ gamesmanship seemed unreasonable. However, with the man advantage, Real added a fourth to seal a 12th European Cup.

On Saturday, again, Ramos was at the centre of things, this time the incident of note came much earlier in proceedings, with his Madrid side jostling for superiority with Liverpool and the game scoreless.

When Mohamed Salah, Liverpool’s talisman, jutted away from Ramos to collect a throw from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ramos followed, and when the ball bounced up off the foot of Liverpool’s 44-goal forward, he pounced and the two engaged.

Ramos won the ball, as he often does, but how what happened next is open to some debate. What is of no doubt is that Salah suffered a game-ending, and according to Jurgen Klopp, serious injury to his shoulder.

The referee deemed the incident – where Ramos’ arm became entangled with Salah’s - not worthy of a free-kick and the question of malice can only be answered by one man, and his name is Sergio Ramos.

What there is no doubt over, mind, is the intensity with which he plays the game. It is that intensity that brought him together with Salah, and it is that intensity that resulted in the Egyptian leaving the field prematurely. And it is that intensity that perhaps fends off the inertia that Guttmann warned about. It is that intensity that wins four league titles, two Cope del Reys, four Champions Leagues, one World Cup and two European Championships.

It is also that intensity, however, that saw him appear to step over the line just moments before Loris Karius’ indiscretion, as with the ball nowhere to be seen, the 32-year-old appeared to catch the young goalkeeper in the face with a flailing arm. To the naked eye, on first inspection, it did not look like a footballing incident. Context, in sport, as in life, is everything, and the context that moment gives the Salah one, while far from definitive, is not great.

Salah’s exit undoubtedly changed the complexion of the final. Klopp’s men, up until that point, had held their own, and then some. They had harried and hassled to the point that the usually unflappable Toni Kroos sidled a pretty simple pass to Karim Benzema out for a throw; while going forward the interplay between Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino was beguiling.

Madrid, as serial winners do, played the circumstance before them, and were the better team post-Salah, with Luka Modric effortlessly brilliant in midfield.

Of course, the errors from Karius and the overhead from Gareth Bale will draw more focus but the flow of the game, post Salah’s exit, had already shifted to favour Madrid, setting in motion the series of events that led Karim Benzema to expose Karius and Bale to expose his own sensational technique.

The Welshman would add a third to put the game beyond doubt, and in doing so, collect the man of the match award. When the dust settles, it will be Bale’s name that is most associated with the 2018 Champions League final, for emerging from the bench to fire Madrid to a 13th European Cup.

For now, the debate will rage about whether Ramos’ intervention was intentional or not but his greatness as a player, after captaining Real Madrid to a third straight Champions League, is no longer up for debate. However, great does not necessarily mean good.