• March 19, 2024

Ramos sobs as more Madrid players exit Russia 2018

Sergio Ramos

The Russia 2018 World Cup continues its progression with the going getting tougher while exits continue to be shocking.

First, it was the shocking elimination of defending champions and Toni Kroos’ Germany from the group stages after a shocking 2 nil defeat to the Korea Republic, with all goals coming in added time.

The week gone by was obviously a dark one for the majority of the Real Madrid contingent representing their national teams in the Russia 2018 World Cup, as many of them exited the competition in the round of 16 stage.

One of such exits that hurt most was that of the Spanish team who dominated hosts Russia all through the game but failed to capitalize on their possession advantage and eventually lost out on penalties, with the majority of Madrid players having no choice but to patronize the early flight from Russia.

Ronaldo’s Portugal met their match against a well defensively organized Uruguay side who stifled the Portuguese as they were eventually knocked out after a 2:1 defeat. Uruguay were always going to be a big ask for the Portuguese side going by how they’ve progressively improved in the tournament.

READ: Manchester United eye deal for Toni Kroos

However, what caught the eye in these exits were the tears dripping from the eyes of the captain-general at the Santiago Bernabeu, Sergio Ramos, after Spain lost out.

That’s a very rare sight of a man who had been talking tough with regards to many footballing issues before the world cup tournament commenced and in the course of it.

Isco also cast a dejected figure as his attempts to breach the Russian defence with intelligent runs and passes proved abortive.

Regardless of the exits, Los Blancos fans still have much to be happy for as they still have representatives in Russia. Varane made it through with France after eliminating Lionel Messi’s Argentina in arguably the best game of the tournament.

It was also good that Modric stayed out of the headlines for the wrong reasons after his penalty miss ensured that Croatia’s game against Denmark went down to penalties, where Danijel Subasic, Croatia’s goalkeeper and the star of the PK shootout show in Russia 2018 emerged.

Modric was unarguably one of the best players in the group stages, with his contributions ensuring that Croatia progressed to the KO stages. It would have been bad for the Los Blancos midfield maestro to end up being the bane of his side.

Meanwhile, Marcelo and Casemiro will likely be in action when Brazil take on a tricky and stubborn Mexico this afternoon. Hopefully, they go through. The sacking of Lopetegui right before the competition commenced appears to have paid off badly for Spain, as they mustered just 1 win in 4 games before they were eliminated by hosts Russia.