Leroy Sane: Cardiff City's Joe Bennett sorry for dangerous foul

Cardiff City's Joe Bennett has apologised for his dangerous foul on Manchester City's Leroy Sane in the Bluebirds' 2-0 FA Cup defeat.

Bennett was booked and later sent off for a second yellow card.

He tweeted: "Just want to apologise to Leroy Sane for my tackle today. I tried to stop the counter attack and completely mistimed my attempt."

But Bennett's boss Neil Warnock said such tackles should be expected in English football.

Warnock was responding to Man City manager Pep Guardiola's criticism of Bennett's foul with Sane set to be out injured as a result of it for up to a month.

"They dished it out a bit, they had one or two naughty tackles," Warnock said.

"He (Guardiola) is in England, what do you expect?

"I suppose when you're like that, you want everything to be nice, pretty and perfect.

"But you don't get that here, you get different challenges."

In one of his tweets on the subject, Bennett added: "I didn't mean to catch him like I did. I hope it's nothing serious and he (Sane) recovers quickly."

Like Warnock, Bennett's team-mate Joe Ralls was sympathetic towards the Cardiff City player.

"He [Bennett] is a bit upset and it looks bad on the still, but he didn't mean that at all," said Ralls.

"Sane is rapid, he's just trying to bring him down because he's probably going to score otherwise and it's one of those unfortunate things and hopefully Sane recovers as soon as possible."

With Cardiff trailing 2-0 shortly before half-time and Sane leading a City counter-attack, Bennett cynically brought the German winger down with a sliding tackle which caught him halfway up his shin.

Referee Lee Mason opted to show Bennett a yellow card but pundits such as former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson and ex-Cardiff defender Danny Gabbidon believed it should have been a red.

Bennett was eventually sent off for a foul on substitute Brahim Diaz in added time, though Warnock does not think the tackle on Sane was malicious.

"They're so quick, that's the problem," said Warnock.

"With the movement and everything else, you think you're there and all of a sudden he's gone.

"I was disappointed he got sent off at the end, obviously he doesn't want to go to Leeds [Cardiff's next game in the Championship] because it was an absolutely pathetic challenge when on a booking.

"To do something like that I think is disrespectful to team-mates."