Ramos: Dismissal was unnecessary

Sergio Ramos has claimed referee Craig Thomson had no need to send him off against Ajax last night, even though both he and Real Madrid team-mate Xabi Alonso seemed to deliberately invite their red cards.

The two players were sent off late in Madrid’s 4-0 win in Amsterdam, and their suspensions will rule them out of the dead rubber against Auxerre next week, while wiping their disciplinary records ahead of the knock-out stages.