The former Real Madrid player and coach was speaking on Movistar Plus Deportes about the 42nd-minute challenge in which Atletico Madrid's Kang-in Lee went in with his studs on the Uruguayan's left ankle.
Referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias gave a foul but no card, and the VAR, Daniel Jesús Trujillo Suárez, did not ask him to check it on the monitor, so a possible red card for the South Korean was never reviewed.
Valdano's point was about Valverde's own reaction, and he linked it to an earlier criticism by coach José Mourinho: “Remember that with regard to Valverde, Mourinho already accused him in some match of being naive, because he had got up too soon after a foul he believed deserved a greater punishment.
"And here I get the feeling that Valverde gets up, gets up too soon, and that can mislead.”
Valdano, who played for Real Madrid from 1984 to 1987 and coached the club from 1994 to 1996, was referring to what Mourinho said after the game against Real Betis: “The first play of the match is a clear yellow card for the player who hit Valverde.
"Then, a minute later, another yellow for the player who committed a serious foul on Vinicius… But the Betis players are smarter than the Madrid ones, who are pure, naive. The Madrid ones get up immediately, and the Betis ones are smarter and, with the support of a fantastic crowd that pushes and pressures, they get this type of thing.”
The challenge has since acquired a medical footnote. Real Madrid announced after the match that Valverde had been diagnosed with a severe trauma to his left ankle and would undergo more tests. EFE said the injury puts in doubt his trip to join Uruguay for games against Japan, South Korea and India, and Spanish reports put his absence at two to three weeks. Real Madrid's next match is at home to Villarreal on 10 October.
Pablo González Fuertes, the refereeing analyst on Radio MARCA's Marcador, said Lee's tackle could have been punished with a red card, and Mourinho was in no doubt in his post-match press conference. Alongside Romero's stamp on Bellingham, he held up the Valverde incident as one of his two pieces of evidence:
“Yes, we could save ourselves the press conference because the story of the match is here. They are two clear red cards (Kang-in Lee's on Valverde and Cuti Romero's on Bellingham).”