MADRID — Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr will miss El Clasico against Barcelona after being handed a four-game ban following his red card for pulling Nathan Saliba's hair in Real's 1-0 win against Villarreal last Saturday.
The Brazil international came on after 52 minutes and thought he had scored his side's second goal, but the referee reviewed the build-up on the pitchside monitor and, with Vinicius clearly shown to have pulled Saliba's hair before scoring, sent him off and disallowed the goal. The Spanish football federation's disciplinary committee suspended the winger for two games for "behaving violently ... (while) not being in a position to challenge for the ball" and a further two matches for "protests" to the officials.
The suspension rules him out of four fixtures — against Sevilla on 18 October, Barcelona on 25 October, Racing Santander on 1 November and Valencia on 7 November — with the El Clasico absence the headline consequence. Following the match, Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho did not attend the post-match news conference.
Vinicius later apologised on social media, saying he was "sorry to the team and the [Real Madrid] fans" after the incident that overshadowed what had been a narrow victory for his side.