Forget Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale... Real Madrid's 'terrible twins' Sergio Ramos and Pepe can hand Spanish giants their 11th European Cup
- Real have conceded just five goals in the Champions League this season
- Sergio Ramos and Pepe have reunited to form an outstanding partnership
- Raphael Varane has fallen down pecking order due to their recent form
Trust Sergio Ramos to rise above the routine and the mundane at Real Madrid’s media day this week and liken winning the Champions League to making love.
He stopped short of going into full Swiss Tony mode ahead of Saturday's showdown, but when he was asked if winning his second European Cup would top the first time he said: 'The first time – it’s like when you make love. You always remember it but it’s true that you can get better because we are usually a disaster the first time. So the first time is special but I’m ambitious and optimistic and I want to keep topping up my curriculum with more trophies.’
Earlier in the day, Pepe, Ramos's partner in the centre of Real Madrid’s defence, had also faced the world’s media. Nobody expected him to still be at the top of his profession in 2016. Back in 2013 Jose Mourinho all but consigned him to the scrap heap declaring Raphael Varane the man to take Madrid forward.
Real Madrid defenders Sergio Ramos (left) and Pepe have been crucial during the current campaign
Ramos keeps a close eye on team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo (2nd left) during Tuesday's training session
Real Madrid centre back Pepe addresses the media along with his manager Zinedine Zidane
Pepe and Ramos have been superb in this tournament. Never mind the BBC - only two teams have scored against Madrid in the Champions League this season and their tally of five goals against is better than even Atletico Madrid.
For all that Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo will threaten Diego Simone’s side, he will know better than anyone that it’s the terrible twins at the other end of the pitch he needs to get past.
Despite all the red cards and the occasional harebrained runs forward, Ramos remains one of the best central defenders in Europe. And despite his advancing years and being written off as yesterday’s man by Mourinho, Pepe is still Madrid’s first choice.
The pair have very little in common off the pitch although they shared a dislike for Mourinho in the Portuguese manager’s final throes and were united in preferring him not to be brought back after Rafa Benitez was sacked.
Both men also have had more than their fair share of critics. Ramos’s detractors say he can’t be trusted. He can’t be trusted to stay on the pitch – sent off more times than any other Real Madrid player. And he can’t be trusted to make the right positional decisions – in the Clasico he charged out towards Sergi Roberto and allowed Luis Suarez to run in behind and score.
And at times, even when he’s performed well and finished up with a trophy, he can’t be trusted to keep hold of it – he dropped the Copa del Rey from the top deck under the wheels of the open-top bus in 2010 as the players paraded it through the streets of Madrid.
It now sits in a glass display cabinet at the Spanish FA’s museum - a monument to his clumsiness. But then there are all the other monuments to his brilliance – four league titles, the World Cup, two European Championships, and the 2014 Champions League final that Real Madrid would never have won had he not climbed highest to power Luka Modric’s corner past Thibaut Courtois in the 93rd minute.
Pepe missed that through injury. Varane played instead and it seemed he had got ahead of him in the pecking order for good.
The French defender misses this final through injury but has fallen back behind the reborn Pepe and would not have started anyway.
‘It is easy to analyse why Pepe is upset. It’s not easy when you are a 31-year-old and you are being overtaken by a 19-year-old,' Mourinho said three years ago. But Pepe has proved his old boss wrong.
| RM all comps 15-16 | Games played | Minutes played | Goals | Passes | Passing accuracy | Fouls conceded | Yellow cards | Red cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sergio Ramos | 32 | 2,723 | 2 | 1,871 | 89.79 | 43 | 9 | 2 |
| Pepe | 30 | 2,614 | 1 | 1,606 | 87.92 | 20 | 6 | 0 |
Despite having little in common off the pitch, Ramos and Pepe have a significant understanding on it
Ramos and Pepe will have to keep Fernando Torres (left) and Antoine Griezmann (right) quiet on Saturday
Injured Real Madrid centre back Raphael Varane has lost his place due to the form of Ramos and Pepe
He retains that lightning capacity to recover quickly from the halfway line. It’s a gift that would have made him the perfect Barcelona central defender had he not long since become one of the players their supporters most love to hate.
He joined La Liga’s pantomime villain A-list when he was given a 10-game ban for wildly kicking Getafe’s Javier Casquero twice as lay in the penalty area having tumbled under a push from the Real Madrid defender.
He also punched Juan Albin and shouted to the fourth official: ‘You’re all sons of b******’. That was back in 2009. He reaffirmed the bad-boy status in 2011 when he was sent off for a high foot on Dani Alves.
The Madrid fans sung their ‘Pepe kill him’ song with even more gusto every time he charged at a rival striker after that incident. It was a dangerous challenge, but it is true he didn’t make any contact.
The hard-man image may have been slightly exaggerated over the seasons – he is more wild follow-throughs than career-threatening reducers – and his ability as a defender has been overlooked along the way.
Ramos’s detractors would say he, in contrast, has been overrated. But it’s still impossible to look beyond that medal haul. And he is nowhere near as calamitous or reckless in a Spain shirt, suggesting that the necessity he feels to be the all-action hero for Madrid is what often brings out the worst in him.
Ramos (centre) was close to joining Manchester United in the summer but decided to sign a new deal at Real
Ramos grew up idolising Argentina forward Claudio Caniggia (centre, pictured with Mauricio Pochettino, left, and Gabriel Batistuta, right, during the 2002 World Cup)
A frustrated striker whose boyhood hero was Argentina’s wild-haired Claudio Cannigia and who played many times as a forward in the Sevilla youth team he joined as nine-year-old, he has never lost the centre-forward’s spirit.
The spirit of adventure almost took him to Manchester United last summer. ‘My dad always told me as a kid to watch English football,’ he once said. ‘My father was always a big fan of Manchester United.’
He got a new contract instead of a move and with Pepe’s revival making him first choice once more they have been permanently reunited - the central defensive partnership that first came together in 2009 is still going strong seven years later. They now stand between Atletico Madrid and the Champions League on Saturday night.
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