The 80th minute at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday brought the yellow card nobody in a white shirt wanted to see. Ibrahima Konate caught Gerard Moreno late, the referee reached into his pocket, and the Frenchman’s season tally ticked up to four bookings in seven La Liga matches.
The threshold in Spanish football is tight. A fifth yellow card in the same season brings an automatic one-match ban, and Konate has nowhere to hide the problem.
Real Madrid host Sevilla on Sunday 18 October. One more caution there and he would miss the first Clasico of the season, which Barcelona host at Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday 25 October at 9pm local time.
Vinicius red card compounds a difficult night
Konate’s booking was the second discipline flashpoint of a tense night at the Bernabeu. In the 72nd minute, after what would have been Real Madrid’s second goal, VAR flagged violent conduct and Vinicius Junior was sent off for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair. The offence carries a ban of one to three matches, which makes the Brazilian a doubt for Camp Nou before the disciplinary committee has even met.
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Real Madrid still won 1-0, Yan Diomande scoring in the 62nd minute, but Jose Mourinho’s side had to hold on with ten men and now move into a decisive block of matches with one attacker suspended and a senior centre-back one careless tackle from joining him.
A free transfer at the heart of the Mourinho rebuild
Konate was one of Mourinho’s first signings after the Portuguese took the job this summer. The 27-year-old centre-back joined on a free transfer in June when his Liverpool contract expired, signed a five-year deal at the Bernabeu, and arrived as Madrid’s third summer addition after Marc Cucurella and Bernardo Silva.
Mourinho took the job in June on a three-year deal, inheriting a squad that had gone two seasons without a major trophy.
Konate’s fourth yellow lands in the middle of a punishing stretch. Real Madrid travel to Roma on Wednesday for their second Champions League league-phase match before the home fixture with Sevilla, and the trip to Camp Nou follows a week later.
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Mourinho’s defensive options are already thin, with Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy and Raul Asencio all absent and Dean Huijsen suspended for the Sevilla game. Resting Konate at the Bernabeu would protect him for the Clasico, but it would also force Mourinho to break up a back line that has only just started to settle.
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