FC Copenhagen answer back at Hearts

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Danish manager disagreed with the Tynecastle side’s view of the penalty in Denmark

The FC Copenhagen coach Jacob Neestrup answered back at Hearts’ complaints over Thursday night’s disputed penalty decision in Denmark. Neestrup felt referee Andrea Colombo was correct to penalise Craig Gordon and point to the spot after a collision between the Scottish goalkeeper and Amin Chiakha, the Copenhagen striker.

Hearts argued strongly at the time that the Italian official made the wrong choice. Both head coach Neil Critchley and Gordon himself publicly declared their frustration at the decision, which came with Copenhagen leading 1-0. Kevin Diks scored the penalty to secure a 2-0 victory for the hosts, but the Tynecastle side left Parken Stadium unhappy.

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Gordon emerged to deflect Chiakha’s goal attempt away with his arm 13 minutes from full-time and the striker then collided with him. Colombo did not blow for a foul but was advised by VAR to review the incident on a touchline monitor. He then pointed to the spot, much to Hearts’ chagrin.

“I think it's a penalty,” remarked Neestrup. “When all comes to all, he touched the ball and then the goalie - there’s a collision. If I had been on the other bench, I would probably have felt the same. But to be honest, as I said to the Danish journalists, I think it's ridiculous to talk about that penalty because it was not decisive for the game. As the game went on, we would have won that game nine out of ten times anyway.”

“With all respect, I think we had total control of the game from the first second to the last second. We expected maybe that there would be a little bit more bite back, but that's not a disrespect for Hearts. They are an amazing club, by the way, and a great team. I just simply think that we kept ourselves on an extremely high level and showed the difference that has to be between FC Copenhagen and Hearts.

“The game was exactly the same in our two previous home games against Jagiellonia and Istanbul. For some reason, we have only managed to get one point but it's actually been exactly the same game picture. So we needed those three points because we have lost five in our two home games before that.

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“I think we had plenty of chances in the beginning of the game. There was a big chance on the low side of the crossbar. I think we had two really big chances right after the first goal. So one more goal would have made it a little bit more relaxed on the bench.”

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