El Clasico, Real Madrid Vs. FC Barcelona: The Rule suggests Pepe was rightfully red-carded and Jose Mourinho needs to revisit school!

The greatest rivalry of football between the two sporting giants of Real Madrid and Barcelona depicted yet another picture of ugly football as Real Madrid all but handed Barcelona a ticket to the Champions League final at Wembley.

A stark contrast of the Barcelona side we're so used to seeing, the match oozed with anger, controversies and mini-duels the players carried forward from previous encounters between the two sides.

Jose Mourinho has come out all guns blazing attacking the Barcelona coach, the players and UEFA of unfair play against his side, which all instigated to a certain reckless challenge made by Pepe, who does have a history of reds and misconducts to his name.

The footballing law that governs the act falls under Law 12 of the basic category of 'fouls and misconduct' as is further sub categorized into 'careless, reckless, using excessive force'..

“Reckless” means that the player has acted with complete disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, his opponent. A player who plays in a reckless manner must be cautioned.

“Using excessive force” means that the player has far exceeded the necessary use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent.. A player who uses excessive force must be sent off.

Jose Mourinho believes that Pepe did nothing wrong and his side were once again deprived of a chance to beat Barcelona but according to the rules, I am pretty confident that the referee was right in sending off Pepe; there is enough evidence that suggests thatexcessive force was used. Pepe took 3-4 steps before launching himself into Dani Alves and it is of no relevance whether Dani Alves was injured or not, the rule states that a player found guilty of using excessive force must be sent off.

Jose Mourinho also stated in his match conference that his team would be without a coach at the Camp Nou, but if you think that you can be arrogant and chant 'well done' several times to the referee and still deserve to be on the touchline, then I'm afraid you need to revisit your football school to learn some footballing etiquettes.

As a Barcelona supporter, no one would approve the behavior of Busquets and Pedro but as the saying goes.. When in Rome, do what the Romans do..

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