Ousmane Dembele a doubt for El Clasico after picking up a red card: Barcelona News
What’s the story?
Barcelona climbed to second in the table after hammering Sevilla 4-0 at the Camp Nou. Despite the result, everything did not go in Barca's favor as Ronald Araujo and Ousmane Dembele were both sent off in the closing stages of the game.
Araújo made his debut for Barcelona as he replaced the fatigued Jean-Clair Todibo. He was sent off just 16 minutes later after a pull on Javier Hernandez's jersey. In the same sequence of events, Dembele was shown a straight red card after reportedly saying "you are very bad. Very very bad." to referee Mateu Lahoz.
In case you didn’t know…
With Clement Lenglet suspended and Samuel Umtiti injured, Ernesto Valverde drafted in Todibo to partner Gerard Pique. The youngster had a decent outing but had to be taken off as he looked fatigued and was replaced by Araujo following which the drama unfolded.
The heart of the matter...
Barcelona ran riot at the Camp Nou last night as they thrashed Sevilla 4-0, with Luis Suarez, Arturo Vidal, Ousmane Dembele, and Lionel Messi all registering their names on the score sheet. The result ensured that the Catalans move ahead of Atletico Madrid in the standings, but it came at a cost.
Ronald Araujo came on as a substitute in place of Todibo, but his dream debut ended prematurely after he was sent off for tugging Javier Hernandez's shirt. In the aftermath, Ousmane Dembele also received his marching orders for allegedly commenting on the referee. Mateu Lahoz's match report claims that the Frenchman told him "you are very bad. Very very bad."
With Gerard Pique also taking a yellow last night, he will serve a one-match suspension for accumulating five yellow cards this season.
What's next?
It remains to be seen how Valverde deals with these suspensions and injuries with the Clasico approaching. The Frenchman was in fine form last night and his exclusion from such a high-profile fixture will come as a massive blow to the Catalans.