Dembele ‘can’t speak’ spanish

Lionel Messi did his best to save Ousmane Dembele from a red card in Barcelona’s clash with Sevilla as he explained to the referee that his teammate doesn’t speak Spanish very well. Dembele was dismissed during the latter stages of the Liga fixture on Sunday. There were just two minutes left on the clock when the France international winger was given his marching orders and it came just 60 seconds after debutant Ronald Araujo was also dismissed in Barca’s 4-0 win. Messi had hoped to avoid seeing Dembele join Araujo in heading down the tunnel, with the World Cup winner accused of verbally abusing match referee Miguel Antonio Mateu Lahoz. The Argentinian allegedly told Lahoz ‘he can’t speak’, suggesting that Dembele does not know how to express himself properly in Spanish and deserved to be let off the hook as a result. The 22-year-old is said to have told the match official “you’re very bad”, with a red card then flashed in his direction.