Vitor Roque talks about his unfair red card during Deportivo Alaves 1-3 Barcelona: “I was confused”

Barcelona faced off against Deportivo Alaves for matchday 23 of La Liga, hoping to put pressure on Girona and Real Madrid, who occupy second and first spot in La Liga right now, respectively.

After a comfortable opening 50 minutes, up 0-2 courtesy of goals from Robert Lewandowski and Ilkay Gundogan, Samuel Omorodion scored to half Barcelona’s deficit.

This was followed by an injury to Gundogan, which rang the alarm bells among the fans.

Vitor Roque eventually came on to replace the German, and swiftly scored the third with one of his first touches of the ball, slotting it comfortably into the bottom right corner to restore the two-goal cushion.

About ten minutes later, the Brazilian received his second yellow card of the game for supposedly fouling an Alaves player. Upon watching the replay, there was little to no sign of any contact, and while Barcelona appealed the red card, it was rejected by La Liga.

“I think the yellow card was unfair, at least the second one, and now I have to serve the suspension. This is the referee’s decision and the club has tried to appeal in every way, so I have no choice,” Roque said about it today, speaking to Mundo Deportivo.

“At first I did not understand. It was a ball in which the defender came towards me with his foot in front, and when I saw him, I tried to turn my foot so as not to collide with him or get injured, but the player started screaming and the referee showed me a red card. I was confused.”

Roque also added that he asked for a justification for the red card, which left most Barcelona fans and players confused, to say the least.

“I asked the referee to explain why he gave me a 2nd yellow card. He said, ‘it’s not like Brazil here’. He was talking about that, that this is not like Brazil, and I just had to respect the decision and walked off the pitch.”

The Brazilian will miss the game against Granada on Sunday, serving his suspension, but will be available to play against Celta Vigo next weekend.

“I’m angry that I can’t be available against Granda after scoring 2 goals in 2 games in a row. Because I wanted to be on the pitch to help my teammates as I was helping them, but now I have to keep my head calm and keep working,” Roque concluded.