Lewandowski to SPORT: It's painful to miss three games for that

Robert Lewandowski will not face Espanyol, Atletico Madrid or Getafe in January with Barcelona. He was sent off against Osasuna but given a longer ban for touching his nose which was intepreted as disrespectful by the officials. The Polish striker spoke about the incident to SPORT.

"With the referee, nothing happened," said Lewy. "He showed me two yellow cards, that's it. But the reason they have hit me with three games is nothing to do with the referee, but me and the coach. That's all I can say.

"One or two weeks before we hhad a chat with Xavi and he told me we had to look out if the referee showed me a yellow card. But that was just a gesture to express that I could not understand what was happening. We had talked about it and it was between Xavi and me, I didn't understand anything."

On how he will face the ban, the striker said "it's difficult because I feel that three games are too many for what i did, that's for sure. And it's painful not to play these three weeks for that."