Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham said that his red card against Valencia was ‘ridiculous’.
In a post-match interview following his team’s 2-1 aggregate win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League last 16, Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham expressed his opinion that the two-game ban he received for a red card against Valencia at the weekend is a “bit ridiculous”.
Bellingham thought he had headed home the winner deep into injury time at the Mestalla on Saturday night only to realize that Gil Manzano had blown the full time whistle on the 2-2 draw.
Understandably animated, the 20-year-old ran over to the match official with his teammates and said ‘It’s a f*cking goal” in English according to his manager Carlo Ancelotti.
Manzano took this as an insult and showed Bellingham his first red card in Spain which has since been revealed to come with a two-match ban.
After setting up Vinicius Jr. for the decisive goal of a 1-1 draw on the evening against Leipzig that put Los Blancos through to the UCL quarterfinals, Bellingham was asked to shed light on the Valencia incident.
“It’s difficult to say because obviously there’s investigations or appeals going on and stuff like that,” Bellingham began.
“And the one thing I will say is that what happened happened with the referee and the decision to blow the whistle.
“We all know what happened and we have to remember that he’s human, you know, but so am I.
“So I think they should have used a little bit more common sense when kind of marking my actions down like they did,” Bellingham insisted to Spanish broadcaster Movistar.
“I didn’t think I said anything very offensive towards him. I think I ran in a manner that was similar to the rest of my teammates and I feel like at times because I’m new and stuff, they want to try and make an example, which I’m cool with because you know at the end of the day I need to be responsible for my actions, and I gave him the excuse to send me off.”
“And yeah, I’m not happy with that. But I think if La Liga and the club appeal, there can be a better agreement, because I think two games is a bit ridiculous.
“But if I have to miss those games I take responsibility and I’ll support the team from there, from the stands,” the Englishman accepted.
Whereas Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti called the match against Leipzig “bad”, Bellingham went for “difficult” instead.
“Leipzig are a very good team. [They have] very good attacking talent, they move the ball well, [and] they’re very intense without the ball as well,” he said.
“We weren’t at our best and they were at a good level compared to where they’re usually at. In the end it was probably the right result being a draw and obviously the work we did in the first leg away at Leipzig has helped us get through.
“It’s important that you win games when you’re not at your best, and we did that tonight,” Bellingham concluded.
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