Real Madrid have a huge Champions League match on Tuesday against Atalanta. After the 0-1 win in the first leg in Bergamo, Zinedine Zidane's men will look to try and build on that positive result to make the quarter finals of the competition.
It is expected to be a very difficult game for the La Liga outfit and the 13 times Champions League winners will have their great talisman and leader in Sergio Ramos.
After winning the Champions League four times in five seasons, Madrid have been knocked out at the last 16 stage in the last two campaigns. The central defender missed the vital second leg on both occasions.
In the 2018-19 season, Ajax faced Real Madrid. In the first leg, Real Madrid won 1-2 and Ramos deliberately got himself booked so he could miss the second leg and avoid suspension for a potential quarter-final clash. That decision was heavily criticised when the Dutch side ran out 1-4 winners in Madrid to knock them out of the competition.
A year later, in 2019-20, Real Madrid faced Man City. In the first leg, despite going on, they lost 1-2 and Sergio Ramos was sent off. The captain had to watch the second leg at the Etihad from the stands. His side lost 2-1 again and were eliminated.
This year, he is not suspended and, after missing the first leg through injury, he will be back for the second leg. It is a huge sigh of relief for Real Madrid given that Ramos has not been knocked out on the pitch since the 2014-15 season. That was when Juventus and former teammate Alvaro Morata did the damage. Will his run continue?