Lionel Messi acted as the leader Barcelona needs, but he chose quite an interesting way of doing so.
During the game between Barcelona and Sevilla, controversial ref Mateu Lahoz sent off two Ronald Araujo and Ousmané Dembelé in less than two minutes, but some believe that the decision to send the Frenchman off the pitch was a bit harsh.
Barcelona players felt the same way, and Lionel Messi tried to change the ref's mind by asking him why he decided to show him a red card. According to the match report, Lahoz stated that Dembelé muttered the words "you're really bad", but Messi tried to change his mind by stating a fact that Lahoz could not have known before hand: the French winger can't speak Spanish fluently.
As revealed by the Spanish TV show "El Día Después", Messi's heated debate with Mateu Lahoz was caught on camera, including the heated exchange right after Dembelé's red card. There, Messi can be seen telling Lahoz that Dembelé was not capable of insulting him because "he can't speak" Spanish.
Have a look at the footage from the show below (Image might be geo-resticted).
"He can't speak, he can't speak!" Messi's words to Mateu after Dembelé's red card"
''No sabe hablar. No sabe hablar''. Las palabras de Messi a Mateu tras la expulsión de Dembélé. #ElDíaDespués pic.twitter.com/gg1mUJIzyw
— El Día Después en Movistar+ (@ElDiaDespues) October 8, 2019
Dembelé may end up missing El Clásico due to this red card (since it was a straight red), and while Barcelona may still file an appeal to overturn this ban, at least Dembelé knows that Messi tried to help him out.