As Barcelona sought the opening - and potentially winning - goal in their Saturday afternoon clash with Malaga, the Andalusian side's on-loan Real Madrid youth graduate Diego Llorente collected a red card for a cynical and deliberate challenge, but one which he has insisted was not dirty. The 23-year-old explained that his sole aim was to stop Neymar from advancing any closer to Carlos Kameni's goal, yet the referee did not view it that way and produced a red card, leaving Malaga with ten men for the final 20 minutes. "I'm annoyed that I left my team with ten men by getting myself sent off for a foul in which I simply wanted to stop the counter attack with a trip," the defender said in an Instagram post. "Obviously I did not intend to injure my opponent." Overall, however, Llorente was pleased with his team's result, one which took Malaga's tally for the season up to 16. "I am pleased about the great effort of the team, which earned a point at a difficult stadium against one of the best teams in the world, despite the circumstances," he added.
The sending off was Llorente's second in a row against the Blaugrana, having also been dismissed last season while playing for Rayo Vallecano.Camp Nou against Barcelona on Saturday night, Juande Ramos' team risked losing the game because they were about to play with only six professional footballers on the pitch. The Malaga tactician lined-up with two academy players but with Diego Llorente's expulsion in the second half, the team lost a professional. According to Diario Sur, RFEF rules dictate that football teams must have at least seven professionals in their team at all times. With 10 minutes left, Malaga had the correct number in-situ but if Juankar's red card had taken place at that point, the club would have violated the regulations. Luckily, just two minutes before the second expulsion, Ramos replaced Pablo Fornals for Duda, bringing the balance to 8-2 professionals. Therefore, the team ended up with seven professionals on the pitch once Juankar was removed.
Article 223 - RFEF General Regulations
1. In order to start a match, each team must present at least seven players in the category in which they play. If this does not happen or, in any case, if the number of players are lower, the club will be considered as having not appeared.
2. [...] If for any reason, including the expulsion of a player or substitution for injury, the team is composed by less than seven professional players [...] it may be considered as an infraction of misalignment by the disciplinary body.
3. If, once the game has started, one of the teams has a number of professional players below seven, the referee will agree to suspend the game. If such reduction had been motivated by expulsions, the result will be resolved in favour of the opponent by the score of three goals to zero [...].
4. In either case, the disciplinary body will decide what to do.
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