Vinicius Junior will almost certainly miss El Clasico. The forward’s straight red card for pulling Nathan-Dylan Saliba’s hair in Real Madrid’s 1-0 win over Villarreal on Saturday falls under a section of the Spanish Football Federation code that prescribes a two-to-three-match ban. The lower end of that range alone is enough to rule him out of the trip to Camp Nou on October 25.
Referee Isidro Diaz de Mera dismissed Vinicius in the 72nd minute at the Bernabeu after a VAR review, which also wiped out what would have been his second goal of the match. The Brazilian had grabbed Saliba’s hair in a passage of play with no contest for the ball.
That specific detail matters. Under Article 130.2 of the federation’s disciplinary rules, actions committed away from the immediate action of play carry a longer tariff than the single-match ban that follows an ordinary on-ball offence. The referee’s wording underlined the point, noting that the ball was not in dispute between the two players when Vinicius pulled Saliba’s hair.
Decision expected on Wednesday
Spain’s Disciplinary Committee will meet on Wednesday to classify the incident and set the length of the suspension. Real Madrid are expected to lodge an appeal if the ban runs to three matches, hoping to pull it down to the minimum two and keep the forward available for the La Liga match that follows the Clasico.
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A separate strand of the referee’s report could still make things worse. Vinicius protested at length after being shown the red card and had to be restrained by team-mates as he approached Diaz de Mera. If the committee treats that conduct as a separate offence rather than part of the dismissal itself, the overall suspension could climb to four matches.
Vinicius posted an apology on social media shortly after the final whistle, writing simply that he was “sorry to the team and the fans”.
Jose Mourinho’s side were already heading into the Clasico without any margin for error after a difficult opening to the Portuguese coach’s first season back in charge. Barcelona lead La Liga and are three points clear of Madrid with a game in hand before the two meet on October 25.
Mbappe or Diomande in Vinicius’s place
The absence takes away the forward Flick’s high line was always going to have to track. Madrid’s alternatives in that role are either Yan Diomande, who scored the winner against Villarreal, or a repositioned Kylian Mbappe, both of which rework the shape Mourinho has used so far.
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There is recent precedent on the length of the ban. Mallorca’s Johan Mojica was handed a two-match suspension in May for a hair-pull offence judged under the same article, which is the floor Real Madrid are now hoping their appeal would reach.
Madrid host Sevilla on October 18 before the trip to Catalonia, and that is the match a one-match sanction would have covered. Any suspension of two matches or more sends them to Camp Nou without their top scorer.
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