Lionel Messi & Sergio Ramos' Best Clashes

At 34 years of age and after more than a decade and a half spent playing top level football, Sergio Ramos has risen beyond the status of merely a master of the dark arts.

Everybody's favourite anti-hero has enjoyed his fair share of petty, individual rivalries over the years. But while some on Merseyside may not quite have forgiven Ramos for shouldering Mohamed Salah out of the 2018 Champions League final, the chief victim of his demonic gamesmanship has been Lionel Messi.

This enmity has been played across decades and was only heightened when the pair were made captains of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively.

Earlier this year, Ramos actually described Messi as 'one of the greatest players in history' but that hasn't exactly stopped him doing everything in his power (by fair means but more often fouling) to complicate matters for the Argentine.

1. Celebration Spat

For a player with more than 700 career goals, Messi rarely strays away from the tried and tested double-point to the heavens. However, after finding the net against Celta Vigo in March 2017, Messi mixed it up and mimed making a phone call. The celebration was aimed at his nephew in the stands who had tried and failed to call his footballing uncle prior to the match.

Three days later, Ramos repeated the same, unoriginal motion against Napoli but made it very clear after the game that: "I made the gesture before Leo. I did it at Camp Nou."

Presumably, the 'So there!' Ramos surely finished this petty retort with has been lost in the fog of time.

2. That Clásico Dismissal

Ramos is no stranger to a red card. Of the 26 which he has received in his career (so far), no team has been on the wrong end of his wrath more often than Barcelona.

The Spain international's fifth Clásico dismissal came after a characteristically rash two-footed lunge on Messi. Ramos - inevitably - disagreed with the referee's assessment, describing the red card as 'excessive'.

As he reluctantly made his way off the pitch, Ramos sarcastically applauded, pointing towards the pitch and then to the stands. Messi, on the other hand, struck a stoppage time winner.

3. Sly Slap

As Messi charged towards Real Madrid's backline, Ramos managed to scoop the ball over the forward's outstretched leg and - in one fluid, sinister motion - sweep his hand across the Argentine's face.

Ramos not only escaped punishment of any kind, but the referee was then reported to have said that Messi 'has thrown himself'. After Barcelona's talisman had finished showing the official the blood this blow had prompted, the normally docile Messi went head-to-head with Ramos as tensions started to boil over.

After the game Ramos conceded: "These things happen. I didn't mean to catch him but he has taken it badly, and stayed down on the pitch."

4. The Red Mist Descends

Most of those draped in white had been waiting for the final whistle long before it came as Barcelona inflicted an emphatic and humiliating 5-0 defeat over Real Madrid in 2010.

José Mourinho's first Clásico at the helm of Madrid was brought to a fitting end by Ramos' debut red card in the fixture.

In the final few seconds of the match, Messi rolled the ball under his studs and skipped past Ramos - an act which tipped Madrid's number four over the edge. As Messi glided away, Ramos stalked him down before a final, wild swipe felled his opponent.

The referee could barely get his red card in the air as the jostling between the two sets of players intensified. Ramos shoved Carles Puyol in the face before pushing Xavi Hernández by the throat for good measure as he took a circuitous route off the pitch.