Page 5 - Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Real Madrid

Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Real Madrid - 5 talking points

Modified Dec 03, 2017 04:03 GMT

#1 Sergio Ramos and the love for red cards

Ramos' aggression got the better of him again

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos was sent off for a second bookable offense in the 86th minute, his 19th red-card in La Liga.

Not only did the Spaniard etch his name in the history books for being the player with the most red cards in the history of La Liga, he also afforded Bilabo a slight opportunity to punish Madrid and get their hands on all of the three points.

However, the Real Madrid defence coped up exceptionally in the absence of their leader and made life difficult for the Bilbao forwards.

The 31-year-old was given his marching orders for a second bookable offense after he was adjudged to have elbowed Aritz Aduriz. The red card helped Ramos steer clear of Xavi Aguado and Pablo Alfaro as the footballer with most dismissals in La Liga.

Meanwhile, the points tally by the Santiago Bernabeu outfit after 14 games (28) is the lowest since 2008 that Real Madrid have earned in a similar time span.

The draw helped Barcelona maintain their 8-point lead over their arch-rival and it is something that the Catalan giants' fans will be hoping comes into play at the business end of the season.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith