Ruben Dias has explained Manchester City's angry reaction to Aymeric Laporte's red card in the defeat to Crystal Palace, saying he felt the tackle should have only warranted a yellow card.
City, already a goal behind to Wilfried Zaha's early opener for Palace, were lacklustre in the first half and needed the half-time whistle to regroup and get back into the game.
However, as the game entered first-half stoppage time, Zaha got the better of Laporte, prompting the City defender to bring him down. Referee Andre Marriner showed a straight red card to Laporte for denying a goalscoring opportunity, despite the centre-back being closer to the centre circle than Ederson's goal.
Still, Laporte was the last man, and a VAR review couldn't save him from earning a red card and a one-match ban for next week's Manchester derby. City were unhappy with Marriner for the decision, with Dias leading the protests before and after the half-time whistle.
With ten men, City couldn't break Palace down after the break and fell to a 2-0 defeat thanks to Conor Gallagher's late second.
Reflecting on the game, Dias admitted City weren't good enough, but revealed his shock at seeing Laporte sent off.
“I still haven’t had the chance to watch it back again," he said.
"It was a little bit strange to see a red. I was walking back thinking it was a yellow. I never thought he [the referee] would go for a red but we have to accept it."
Dias accepted City were not at their best against Palace, and challenged his teammates to react in the next game against Club Brugge this week.
He continued: “The reaction is that we have a game in a short period of time and we are already thinking about it. Today we lost three very important points but it is football. We are not happy but looking forward.
“Today we were not at our best but even so the team fought and gave everything and it was not enough."
