Eljero Elia made his debut for FC Utrecht on Friday evening. The 33 year old striker fell against VVV-Venlo (1-1) ten minutes ahead of time, but could not save his new club from losing points. At the end of the match Elia got a yellow card from referee Rob Dieperink because of remarks on the lead. Elijah himself, however, was not aware of any harm after the match.

Deep in the injury time, while Utrecht was looking for the winning goal, VVV goalkeeper Thorsten Kirschbaum started stalling in Elia’s eyes. Winger Dieperink drew the attention of the referee, but he didn’t want to do so and handed out yellow. “I only said to the referee: ‘Time, huh!'”, said Elijah. “But he wanted to make a show of it again… I just said, ‘Why does the ball have to go to the other side? And he makes a show of it…”

Elia does not want to comment on whether he could have played for more than ten minutes on Friday. “I know the trainer has confidence in me, I also have confidence in the trainer and in the staff. They know what they’re doing,” said the ex-Feyenoorder, who didn’t make a very fit impression. “It’ll come, don’t worry about me, it’ll come. The old Elijah will see you soon. I’m a bit angry now too. It’s just a shame if you leave out at VVV two points when you know you’re really the much better one.”

FC Utrecht fell behind early in the match due to a hit by Guus Hupperts. “In the first half we started the match very nervously, unnecessary in my opinion. You just have to play nice soccer, which we can do well,” said Elia, who saw Utrecht come back in the second half due to a goal from Sean Klaiber. “In the second half you just see that you’re the one above. You score the goal, then you have to push through.”