yeahbut didn't the belgians only give that witsel kid 10 games for basically destroying that dude?
and that dude himself was a serial fouler who got away with it.
clearly violence doesn't bother he belgians.
in any case, pepe isn't awesome he's just very physical. decent strikers with decent movement can make a mug out of him. he can't defend space and has no idea of his surroundings. put him 1v1 against a striker and yeah, he'll probably deal with him, but that's only half of being a great defender and why, despite his performance against most attacks, he's usually found wanting on the biggest of stages.
for portugal he gets away with it, partly because he plays as a DM sometimes but also because they have bruno alves and carvalho who are utterly world-class defenders. real have no one of that ilk, and it shows.
ivanovic is too slow to be real's CB. I hope you sign him.