What do you all think about his red card in the game at Valencia? Just finished watching the replay and shaking my head. It wouldn't merit more than a yellow in the EPL, I dare say. He was clumsy and brutish, stepping on two players' feet; I know it is at the official's discretion, but don't most factor in the circumstances, e.g., it is the Champions League and he is a very important player, to say the least? He sucked in that game--passes were all he got, and they were uniformly horrid--but PSG has the potential to be really bad off in the next leg.

At least it makes things more interesting...

The intention was there, but yes, it merited only a yellow. Unfortunately, the referee doesn't have the luxury of foresight.

Onenil a ref can't make a desicion based on how important the player is. It would be unfair to other players. Yeah it was a weak red but Ibrahimovic was stupid to do that give the game was 30 seconds away from ending. He lost the ball and went in kinda nasty. Guardado was lucky he didn't he hurt (he got scrapped very lightly and made the most out of it). 

I agree that they SHOULDN'T make a decision like that, but it is clear that refs continually DO make decisions based on criteria other than the nature of the foul. When a second yellow card is due, a ref will typically hold off to avoid sending someone off, at least on the first subsequent foul. But you are absolutely right about the importance of the player: again, Ibra SHOULDN'T be exempt just because of his status; I'd still argue that refs do factor that in, too. This has changed the whole match.

Part of my surprise over this was the immediacy of the red card--that ref whipped it out with no hesitation whatsoever, almost like it was "if Ibra does shit, he's going down."  The whole thing happened so fast, in extra time, it was just a shocker.

Unfortunately, after all this match-fixing that has been revealed, it's now becoming harder for me to view such dodgy decisions without a hint of suspicion. Like you say, onenil, it was so instant, for so small a transgression, right at the death of the game, that it's hard to justify, even after the fact.

I thought at the time (and the gif confirms) that Ibra didn't actually do much wrong. There was a scrape, but the 'stepping on feet' part did not actually happen. I have the match on my DVR, and Ibra steps down nowhere near Guardado's foot.

Just terrible (or shady) refereeing. I'm not a big fan of Ibra, but I give him kudos for not screaming and shouting about it, possibly making it worse.

He could be receiving a three match suspension for "assaulting another player" which is up to a court hearing. Ribery had a similar offense not too long ago. 

Absurd.