Uefa have opened a disciplinary case against Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal after the player appeared to force the referee to give him a yellow card in the final minutes of the Champions League match against Apoel on Tuesday evening.

Full screen Real Madrid's Dani Carvajal against Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League. KATIA CHRISTODOULOU (EFE)

Carvajal delay forces yellow

The yellow card shown to the Spanish right back by Artur Dias in the 90th minute of the comfortable 0-6 victory for Los Blancos was for excessively delaying the taking of a throw in. This unnecessary caution meant that he would be unavailable for the final group game against Borussia Dortmund, which will have no bearing on the standings, wiping his card slate clean.

Potential sanctions for Carvajal

Confirmation from Uefa on Wednesday morning states that Carvajal could have violated Article 15 of its disciplinary regulations with this action and the Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee will investigate the incident further on December 7. If found guilty, the player who has only recently returned to Zinedine Zidane's line-up after being diagnosed with a heart infection, could miss further games in the competition as part of the sanctions.

Everything will depend on the how the report is written up from Uefa's match delegate. In February 2016, FC Barcelona's Gerard Piqué was investigated for a similar action against Arsenal when his side were two goals ahead in the Last 16of the competition, aiming to be clear for the quarterfinals, in spite of missing the second leg. Uefa chose to take no further action in this case.