Three matches, two exclusions! The number of red cards from the first day of the Champions play-offs testifies to the intensity of the matches.
However, we will have noted the clear difference in attitude between the victims of wrongful actions punished with a red card.
At Lotto Park Thorgan Hazard faced a furious Owen Wijndal at having been viciously shot down by Eden’s brother.
The Dutchman advances his head against that of his opponent, with a threatening air.
The scene did not escape the fourth referee, Wim Smet, who rushed to insert himself between the two men, thus involuntarily causing the Anderlecht player to fall backwards.
But he chose to stay on the ground and roll on the ground, in order to make it appear that the Antwerp defender had practically smashed his skull.
Finally, and after the intervention of VAR referee Lawrence Visser, Jasper Vergoote saw the images, and excluded the former Ajax player.
Which, by all accounts, was the turning point of the match, won 1-0 by Anderlecht.
“It was unsporting, but very clever on the part of Thorgan Hazard, since he thus offered the keys to victory to his team,” commented Antwerp coach Mark van Bommel afterwards (see Footnews:
“We must remain correct, and Burgess was not! Deserved exclusion!”
At the Cegeka Arena Genk leads 1-0, and manages to trap the ball at the corner during almost five minutes of added time.
Annoyed by this circus, the Unionist defender Christian Burgess, who had the ball in his hand to make a throw-in, threw it quite violently in the face of Toluwalase Arokodare, the author of the only goal of the game, elected man of the match, who did not don’t flinch.
“Yes, I know very well that in my place others, perhaps more intelligent than me, would have collapsed,” admitted the great Nigerian striker afterwards. “But it’s not my style, and I must also admit that I was very surprised, even shocked, on the one hand, and, on the other, that I didn’t feel anything. I wasn’t going to still don’t pretend to be in pain. You have to remain correct. Burgess, for his part, was not. I don’t know what came over him. Maybe he didn’t know how to control an extreme frustration. The referee did the right thing in any case to exclude him. He deserved this sanction, because these are not manners…”
“I didn’t see much, but it was from the start of the match that Burgess was talking too much to the referees,” commented visiting coach Alexander Blessin.
“I always defend my players, and we will therefore talk about it internally. But this action was inappropriate, and I am therefore not going to contest the exclusion…”
“I personally found it very severe,” finally judged Alessio Castro-Montes. “I also said it to the fourth referee (Michiel Allaerts, editor’s note).
“But he told me that it had been checked by the VAR…”
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2024-04-01 20:40:00
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