BARCELONA, April 11: One month after leading the most improbable of comebacks, Neymar earned himself the scorn of Barcelona�s fans with a pair of senseless bookings.
He�ll get a chance to redeem himself on Tuesday when his team faces Juventus in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
Neymar picked up a pair of unnecessary yellow cards on Saturday and got sent off with 25 minutes left and his team trailing by a goal at Malaga.
Without him, the undermanned side lost 2-0 and squandered an opportunity to close in on Spanish league leader Real Madrid, which was held to 1-1 by Atletico Madrid.
Neymar�s infractions bordered on the absurd. Or tragicomic. The Brazilian got his first yellow card for bending over to tie his boot laces and not giving space for a Malaga player to cleanly take a free kick.
Then, knowing he was one false step from leaving his team with 10 men, Neymar charged into a Malaga player with no real chance to win back the ball.
As if he hadn�t hurt his team enough already, Neymar may have made matters worse by sarcastically applauding the assistant referee as he exited the field.
The sending-off meant Neymar will be suspended for the next match against Real Sociedad, but his added dose of bad attitude could earn him an extended suspension, putting in danger his availability for the match at Madrid on April 23 that will go a long way to deciding the domestic title.
Referee Gil Manzano included Neymar�s sarcastic applause in his report to the Spanish federation�s competition committee, which will meet on Tuesday to decide the length of his suspension.
The front page of Barcelona-based sports daily Sport on Sunday summed up the incredulity of Barcelona�s supporters by splashing the headline �UNFORGIVABLE� over a photo of Manzano showing Neymar his well-deserved red card. � AP
