Barcelona Boss Refuses To Blame Ansu Fati For Red Card

Forum 3 years ago

Barcelona Boss Refuses To Blame Ansu Fati For Red Card

Barcelona coach Quique Setien insists he’s not blaming Ansu Fati after the young star was shown a red card in his side’s 1-0 win over Espanyol.

Fati was brought on as a substitute in the second-half with the game still goalless but just five minutes after coming on, the teenager was heading off again, a VAR review upgrading his caution to a red card as he was punished when a high right foot caught Fernando Calero.

Barcelona still managed to grind out a narrow win courtesy of a goal from Luis Suarez and Setien was pleased by Fati’s reaction to his sending off.

“He was very humble afterwards,” Setien said of Fati. “He came to talk to me. He felt very bad about what happened.

“He wasn’t provoked. He went in to win the ball. After I watched it, the challenge looked harder than it actually was. It’s a moment that could have been avoided. When he goes to win the ball I saw he tried to fold his leg back so there wouldn’t be any contact, but the decision was made.

“He’ll be affected by this and we’ll see what the punishment is but it’s a moment that I don’t blame him for.”