Zlatan Ibrahimovic Banned 1 Champions League Match After Red Card vs. Chelsea

Paris Saint-Germain's Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been hit with a one-match Champions League ban by UEFA for his red card against Chelsea on March 11, while team-mate Serge Aurier will have to sit out three fixtures for his comments addressed at the official after the match.  

Bleacher Report's Jonathan Johnson shared the news:

Ibrahimovic was dismissed during the second leg of PSG's round-of-16 clash with Chelsea for committing a foul on Oscar, a decision that frustrated the French champions.

He commented on the decision after the match, per Matt Barlow of the Daily Mail:

"

I don't know if I have to get angry or start to laugh. For me when I saw the red card I was like 'the guy doesn't know what he's doing.' That is not the worst. The worst is when I got the red card all the Chelsea players come around. It felt like I had a lot of babies around me.

"

While it was clearly a foul, the Swede appeared to pull back his leg to avoid making full contact. 101 Great Goals shared an image of the incident in question:

Fans expressed their disappointment with referee Bjorn Kuipers' decision en masse, and it now seems UEFA has listened. The organisation often hands out two-match bans for straight dismissals, and as shared by the Press Association's Martyn Ziegler, Ibrahimovic's suspension can be seen as an admission Kuipers had it wrong:

The proficient striker will miss the first leg of PSG's quarter-final fixture, with the draw to determine their opponents taking place on Friday. Full-back Aurier will miss three matches in total, after uploading a video to his Twitter account in which he unleashed a foul-mouthed rant directed at the official, per Goal's Alex Fischer.

The Ivory Coast international had apologised for his outburst earlier this week, per SuperSport Blitz, but a severe punishment was expected, nonetheless:

Aurier hasn't seen much action during his first season with the French champions, so while it's never a good thing to lose a player to a long-term suspension, PSG should comfortably survive his absence.

The same cannot be said for Ibrahimovic, who is the club's top scoring option and its biggest star. While some, like Bleacher Report's Stan Collymore, believe PSG are better off without the 33-year-old, manager Laurent Blanc would undoubtedly prefer to have him available for the first leg of the tie:

The good news is Ibrahimovic will be available for the second leg of the round, and provided PSG get a favourable draw on Friday, Les Bleus will have every chance to progress to the semi-finals.

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