The Ramos-Carvajal diagonal produces goals

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The virtues of Sergio Ramos as a footballer leads us to speak of a strong defender, great in the air and with superior technical quality, a great scoring capacity and with a long pass – particularly to Dani Carvajal – that just keeps getting better and better.

He’s increased the frequency and success this season of a resource that he had been using throughout his career, but that has been improving over the years.

With both Spain and Real Madrid, it’s usual to see Ramos make a cross-field pass that’s difficult to intercept but that’s interpreted to perfection by Carvajal.

Great for Julen Lopetegui and Luis Enrique, and a clean, accurate and very dangerous out ball when the opposition is pressing them in their own half.

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The defender is now the Real Madrid player with the third best percentage of successful passes (95.8), behind only Ceballos (97 percent) and Toni Kroos (96 percent). Of 334 passes made by Ramos this season, only 14 haven’t found their target.

Carvajal, meanwhile, is in great form in recent games and has become the perfect recipient for that play.

This season, in six official matches, Ramos and Carvajal have scored two goals based on that pass. The first, against Leganes, on the third day of LaLiga Santander, ended with Gareth Bale’s goal after the No.2 centred. The last one, in Elche against Croatia saw a cross from Carvajal with the outside of the boot Saul’s header.

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