Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 6y

Sergio Ramos 'ruthless and brutal' in Champions League final - Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Sergio Ramos' display in the Champions League final was "ruthless and brutal."

Ramos was involved in the tussle that forced Mohamed Salah off injured in the first half of the 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid and delivered the blow that gave Loris Karius a concussion before the goalkeeper's mistakes that directly led to two goals.

Klopp believes Salah and Karius were both deliberately target by the Madrid captain, who picked up his fourth Champions League winners' medal on that night in Kiev.

Asked about the Ramos-Salah incident, the Liverpool manager told U.K. newspapers: "We are opening that bottle again?

"I watched that back of course. Someone showed it to me immediately after the game. If you watch it back and you are not with Real Madrid then you think it is ruthless and brutal. You don't think: 'Wow, good challenge.'

"It is in a situation in the game where Mo tries to keep the ball, make a few yards and speed up the game. The thing is I saw the ref taking charge of big games at the World Cup afterwards and nobody really thinks about that later.

"I think 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 and say: 'What is that?' It was ruthless.

"I don't think Mo would have always got injured in that situation, this time it was unlucky, but it is an experience that we cannot have.

"I'm not sure if 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."

In the immediate aftermath of the final, Ramos declared innocence for his part in Salah picking up the shoulder injury that left his arm in a sling ahead of the World Cup.

The Spaniard also suggested the Egyptian could have continued at the NSC Olimpiyskiy with the help of a pain-killing injection.

Klopp continued: "Ramos said a lot of things 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, and I have watched football since I was five years old, then you will see a lot of situations with Ramos.

"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 were two times in a row the winner of the Fair Play table. Not that it was our goal before the start of the season, we didn't say: 'Let's be beautiful and win that.'

"We are aggressive but I always use the word legal as well. Usually out there 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."

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