Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos escaped a certain red card with quick thinking and play acting during his team's victory against Espanyol on Sunday.
The Spanish defender has been sent off an astonishing 21 times in his career, but avoided number 22, even after blatantly handling the ball to stop what looked like a goal-bound shot from an Espanyol player.
Having already picked up a yellow card in the opening minutes of the match for a foul on Baptistao, Ramos took a huge gamble sticking his hand out to block the shot, but was quick to go down clutching his head, fooling the match official into believing that he had gotten hit in the face.
@Emenderkfcb10 Amarilla que supondria la segunda, perdonada a Ramos por esta mano pic.twitter.com/55kbTNlmze
Ramos lied about being hit in the face to avoid his second yellow of the game.And they say referees help Barcelona pic.twitter.com/P8geMOjuEp
Madrid would go on to win 2-0 through goals from Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez, but its fair to say that Los Blancos might have struggled against Espanyol if they went down to 10 men.