This Sunday’s Villarreal-Barcelona will be marked, perhaps more than by the result (2-0 in favor of the Catalans)for the expulsion of Renato Veiga after a foul tackle on Lamine Yamal.
It happened in the 38th minute of the first half, with the Portuguese international taking a cart on Yamal’s heels. It hits the player, but the intensity raises doubts about the direct red card shown to Veiga. The referee promptly showed it.
In the post-game flash interview, Marcelino, Villarreal’s coach, criticized the decision.
«We made an avoidable mistake with the expulsion, which greatly affected the game. I said to the referee: ‘What if I show a yellow card and then go to VAR?’. On the contrary, I don’t know what happens. He told me he had seen it very clearly. For me, it was excessive force, but it’s not expulsion. Yesterday I saw a higher entrance, this one was close to the ground. I don’t think the entry was serious. There was no ankle sprain. If the referee saw the seriousness… with the spectacle we were seeing, 38 very good minutes, leaving a team with ten…», he lamented.
At the press conference, on the same subject, the Spanish coach added:
«I’ve seen the expulsion thing from different angles. It looks more orange than red to me. There was no entry with the sole, it was close to the ground. Yesterday I saw an entry with the sole in the middle of the tibia and it wasn’t red. If I had shown yellow, it wouldn’t have been unfair,” he said.
After the entry, Yamal scored a goal, after Raphinha took Barcelona ahead on the scoreboard. Renato Veiga will be left out of Marcelino’s options in the near future.
