Messi tried to save Dembele from Sevilla red card

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The captain spoke to referee Mateu Lahoz

Lionel Messi tried his best to stop Ousmane Dembele from being sent off against Sevilla, but his protests to referee Mateu Lahoz were in vain.

The Frenchman was sent off in the 4-0 Camp Nou win for saying the match official was “very bad” for his earlier decision to dismiss Ronald Araujo.

Video has now shown that Messi spoke to Lahoz and tried to tell him that his team-mate can’t express himself very well in Spanish but it made no difference.

According to Sport, Messi said “if he doesn’t know how to speak, if he can’t speak,” and then added ”he said very badly, very badly,”

Ernesto Valverde also said after the match he was surprised to see Dembele sent off because “it’s hard to get a phrase out of him in Spanish. It won’t have been a long phrase, for sure.”

Dembele will now miss Barca’s trip to Eibar and is at risk of sitting out the Clasico too due to suspension. The length of his ban yet to be confirmed, but he could be hit with a two-match suspension for insulting the referee.

Source: barcablaugranes.com