Lewandowski calls his three-match ban ‘painful’ and deems it harsh

was sent off against Osasuna before the World cup break with his punishment deemed to be a 3-match ban. Barcelona has requested for the ban to be reviewed, but to no avail, as the “painful” suspension of their talisman, Robert Lewandowski will undoubtedly influence their title challenge.

Lewandowski was shown a red card after he received two yello cards in the first half of Barcelona’s 2-1 victory over Osasuna. Later the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced that Lewandowski’s band will be extended to three matches because of a gesture he made towards referee Gil Manzano.

The Polish striker spoke to the Sport outlet about the whole situation, saying:

"It's difficult because I feel that three games is too much for what I did, that's for sure. It’s painful not to be able to play three games because of that."

Lewandowski claims that the gesture he is being banned for was actually meant for

manager Xavi and not the ref.

"Nothing happened with the ref,"

Lewandowski said.

"The reason I got three matches was nothing to do with the referee, it was to do with me and the coach. That's all I can say.

"One or two weeks before, I had a chat with Xavi, and he told me that I had to watch out if the referee gave me a yellow card.

"That was just a gesture to express he couldn't understand what was going on. We had talked about it, and it was something between Xavi and me. I didn't understand anything."

The 34-year-old striker has performed brilliantly since joining Barcelona in the summer, scoring 18 goals with only Mbappe (19) and Erling Haaland (24) ahead of him in Europe’s top leagues in terms of goalscoring.

Despite winning it all with Bayern Munich, Lewandowski still hungers for more trophies, as he told the Sport:

"I will stay at Barcelona as long as I am fit and hungry for titles. We have to have the mentality of a champion."

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