Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos believes his red card was "excessive" in Barcelona's 3-2 La Liga Clasico win on Sunday night, adding that he never has the intention to harm anyone on the field.
Ramos' sending off in the 77th minute for a two-footed tackle on Lionel Messi was seen as a pivotal moment in the game. Messi would produce a 93rd-minute winner to put the blaugrana outfit ahead of their rivals on goal difference at the top of the table, although Madrid do have an extra game left to play.
Right-back Dani Carvajal said the sending off marked a "crazy game", with Los Blancos director Emilio Butragueno calling the decision "doubtful."
But Ramos, himself, had no doubt that his tackle warranted only a yellow card.
"The red card was excessive," Ramos told reporters. "I was not going to harm anyone. In my opinion, that was a yellow card, not a red. I was too late, but there was no contact.
"I never have the intention to hurt anyone."
The game had swung back and forth before then, with Casemiro opening the scoring before Messi hit his first, Ivan Rakitic appearing to have won it for Barca, and then James Rodriguez seeming to have handed Madrid a point close to the end.
Ramos confronted referee Alejandro Hernandez after his sending off, but denied that he was directing his sarcastic applause at the official as he left the field.
"I did not applaud the referee when I walked off. I was talking to [Barcelona's Gerard] Pique, not to the referee," he said.
"Referees can be right and sometimes they are wrong. This one was decisive. But I was chatting to Pique, not the referee."
Speaking on beIN Sports after the final whistle, Carvajal agreed that the decision had been the match's most important incident.
"It was a crazy game, which was marked by the sending off," Carvajal said. "We managed to equalise, in the end in a counter-attack they take the three points. We need to be relaxed, nothing too much has happened. We still have one game more than them to play, this is football and we must keep going.
"You cannot blame anything on the team, on Wednesday we have another game and we keep going. There is a long way to go yet in La Liga."
Madrid's director of institutional relations Butragueno also spoke on local TV afterwards and said the call by young official Hernandez Hernandez, 34, had been questionable.
"The sending off was very doubtful," former Madrid forward Butragueno said. "The team reacted very well. [Barca keeper Marc-Andre] Ter Stegen made some great saves. Our players did great work. It has been a hard blow."
Ramos took his time about leaving the field of play, appearing to gesture towards Barca's Gerard Pique and gesturing in disbelief before finally heading for the tunnel.
Such displays of petulance are frowned upon by Spanish officials -- with extra punishment for disrespecting match officials after a sending off at Malaga recently having kept blaugrana attacker Neymar out of Sunday's game.
With Madrid currently only having two fit centre-halves, the issue could now flare up in the local media, although Butragueno predicted that the Andalusian would not face any further punishment.
"I don't believe Ramos did anything towards the referee," he said. "I don't know what exactly he was doing. Ramos will not be at Riazor, [Gareth] Bale has been injured and we will have to see who is there. We have another final in La Coruna."
