Facundo Bernal apologises after being sent off against Barça

Facundo Bernal has apologised after being sent off in Betis’s 5-2 defeat to Barça at the Benito Villamarín the previous day. The Uruguayan midfielder was shown a red card in the 54th minute following a heated exchange with Lamine Yamal, leaving his side a player short for much of the second half.

The incident followed a confrontation involving Barcelona midfielder Fermín López, who was on the ground shortly before Ez Abde scored for Betis. Yamal then stepped in to defend his teammate. According to referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea’s report, Bernal grabbed the forward by the neck and struck him twice in the face with his head while the ball was out of play. Bernal was sent off and Yamal was cautioned.

Betis had cut the deficit to 3-2 through Abde, but had to play the rest of the contest with ten men. Bernal’s dismissal badly damaged the team’s hopes of mounting a comeback. After the match, Betis defender Héctor Bellerín had already said that Bernal had apologised to his teammates. The midfielder later acknowledged his mistake in a social media post and addressed his apology to the club and its supporters.

“I want to apologise to my teammates and the Real Betis fans for leaving the team with one player fewer. I don’t usually react like that and I should have controlled myself in that incident. I accept responsibility and it won’t happen again,” he wrote.

Bellerín also pointed to the trust within the dressing room. “In the dressing room there is complete trust to tell each other the good and bad things. We all make mistakes,” he said.

The defeat comes with Barça top of the Liga on 27 points after nine matches. The Catalan side has won all nine of its games in the competition, scoring 39 goals and conceding 9, and has also won its last five Liga matches. For Betis, Bernal’s dismissal weighed heavily in a game in which the team had reduced the gap before being left with ten players.