Sergio Ramos admits he purposely got himself booked against Ajax

Sergio Ramos is comfortably one of the best central defenders in world football, and has been for many years now. His leadership qualities, ability with a football and achievements at the very top is proof that the Spaniard will forever go down in history as one of the best defenders ever.

At 32 years of age, Ramos knows every trick in the book when it comes to gaining an advantage over his opponents.

The Real Madrid skipper made headlines in last season's Champions League final, when he appeared to purposely keep hold of Mohamed Salah's arm to cause the Liverpool star a serious shoulder injury, while he frequently partakes in a 'professional foul' should his side find themselves caught short on the counter attack.

Ramos does all this for the benefit of his team, of course, and say what you like about him but there's absolutely no doubting his commitment to the cause. Last night, he demonstrated this when it appeared he got booked on purpose in the dying stages of Madrid's 2-1 win over Ajax in the Champions League.

The Spain international was making his 600th cap for Los Blancos in their last-16 tie against the Eredivisie outfit, where goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio cancelled out Hakim Ziyech's 75th effort for the hosts.

Madrid now take a healthy lead back to the Bernabéu, with it looking hugely likely that they'll once again progress through to March's quarter-finals.

Ramos was just one booking away from suspension last night and knew that one more yellow card would see him miss Madrid's next match.

With the tournament's reigning champions leading 2-1 after Marco Asensio's late strike, Ramos would have felt confident that his team had done enough to make it through to the next stage of the competition.

To ensure he picked up a yellow last night - instead of risking one in the return leg and missing the quarter-final - Ramos appeared to purposely take down Ajax front man Kasper Dolberg in the 89th minute, which as expected drew a booking from referee Damir Skomina.

Everyone watching the game would have been thinking the same thing - he did that on purpose; after the clash, Ramos confirmed those thoughts. Talking to the Spanish press, the 32-year-old said:

"Not to underestimate the opponent, but sometimes you have to take these decisions and that's what I decided."

"Looking at the result, I'd be lying if I said I didn't force it."It's something I was thinking about," he added. [Marca]

Although this was a pretty cunning ploy from Ramos, the fact that he admitted what he had done after the game could land him in hot water with UEFA.

Last season, teammate Dani Carvajal was presented with a two-game ban for purposely picking up a booking against APOEL, in turn seeing him miss Madrid's meaningless clash against Borussia Dortmund before the last-16 phase came into play.

You really f*cked that one up didn't you, Sergio.