Jurgen Klopp Slams 'Brutal' Sergio Ramos as Liverpool's Champions League Final Hangover Continues
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has slammed the 'ruthless and brutal' performance from Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos which left Mohamed Salah with a serious shoulder injury during the Champions League final.
Ramos was the man involved in a tussle early in the first half in the Kiev showpiece which resulted in the Reds' star man being forced off the field in tears after his arm became trapped underneath the Real skipper's body.
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The Spain international was also subject to criticism for his role in subjecting Liverpool's keeper Loris Karius to a blow in the head in yet another brutal challenge - incidents which Ramos previously laughed off after claims he had intentionally set out to cause a serious injury.
Klopp - who has remained relatively silent about the final up until this point - has claimed that Ramos deliberately targeted his players during his side's 3-1 defeat in May, and got away with his brutal antics as he most often does.
"We are opening that bottle again? If you watch it back and you are not with Real Madrid then you think it is ruthless and brutal," Klopp told reporters, via Goal.
"I saw the ref taking charge of big games at the World Cup and nobody really thinks about that later. But in a situation like that somebody needs to judge it better.
"If VAR is coming then it is a situation where you have to look again. Not to give a red card but to look again and say: ‘What is that?’ It was ruthless.
“I’m not sure it is an experience we will have again – go there and put an elbow to the goalkeeper, put their goalscorer down like a wrestler in midfield and then you win the game. That was the story of the game."
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The Liverpool boss failed to see the humorous side of the event like Ramos did as he vented his frustrations at the reaction of the Real Madrid captain in the immediate aftermath of the event.
He added: "Ramos said a lot of things afterwards that I didn’t like. As a person I didn’t like the reactions of him. He was like: ‘Whatever, what do they want? It’s normal.’ No, it is not normal.
"If you put all of the situations of Ramos together then you will see a lot of situations with Ramos. The year before against Juve he was responsible for the red card for [Juan] Cuadrado. Nobody talks about that afterwards.
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"It is like we, the world out there, accepts that you use each weapon to win the game. People probably expect that I am the same. I am not.
"We are aggressive but I always use the word ‘legal' as well. Usually if you try something you will get punished. Someone will see it and ban you for four or five weeks. But in this example, no one.
"This ref should have had the courage to decide that game. In this situation we didn’t get it and, if you write this, people will say I am weak or a bad loser or a whiner. I am not. I accept it. It’s not like I wake up in the morning and think: ‘Ramos!’"
