Thursday, August 19, 2021 at 10:36 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 23:40

Feyenoord took a big step towards the group stage of the Conference League on Thursday by beating IF Elfsborg 5-0. A small blemish on the victory was the red card for Justin Bijlow, who was sent off in the final phase by referee Craig Pawson. In ‘s studio ESPN Mario Been and Kees Kwakman are critical of that decision.

Bijlow came far out of his goal after eighty minutes to prevent Marokhy Ndione from scoring. The attacker had reached the ball earlier and simply made his way to the grass by running into Bijlow, who kept as still as possible. Still, referee Pawson gave Feyenoord’s goalkeeper red, forcing Arne Slot to take Luis Sinisterra off the side and bring keeper Ofir Marciano on.

“It doesn’t matter, but I think it’s severely punished,” said Been. “There are also two other players (Gernot Trauner and Marcos Senesi, ed.). No, yellow could have been done too. I thought he was whistling at times anyway. Very small, silly transgressions.” Kwakman is also of that opinion. “You don’t expect that from an English referee. He whistled very often. According to the rules this may be correct, but it is 5-0…”

Elfsborg also ended the game with ten men. “In any case, Elfsborg’s was justified. So, that was a dirty one,” said Kwakman. Former Sparta Rotterdam midfielder Frederik Holst received that second yellow card for a hard kick on Sinisterra.