Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon admits the referee and VAR of last night’s Copenhagen clash has left him feeling aggrieved.
The Jambos suffered a third consecutive Europa Conference League defeat in Denmark on Thursday evening that leaves them needing a positive result next week against Petrocub to qualify for the knockout play-off round.
Hearts lost 2-0 at the Parken Stadium after conceding twice in the second-half – but it was the all-important second goal that sparked controversy.
Copenhagen were awarded a penalty after a VAR review deemed Gordon to have fouled Amin Chiakha inside the box.
But Gordon protested that he stood his ground and that Chiakha was the one to initiate the contact. The veteran stopper has now spoken out about the incident that he says ruined Hearts‘ efforts.
Gordon on Copenhagen Hearts penalty call
Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Gordon revealed: “The referee didn’t really speak much. You don’t tend to get much of a conversation.
“They tell you to go away and not speak, so he wasn’t wanting to have a chat with me. I told him that I’d touched the ball, that we’d both touched the ball, and what was I supposed to do?
“I was standing still when the contact was made, he (Chiakha) comes through the back of the defender to get a slight touch on the ball, kicks it onto me, then follows through onto me. If that happens anywhere else on the pitch, you probably get a foul.
“I didn’t get the foul and, for some reason, somebody looking at a TV screen has managed to interpret that in a totally different way when the ref had a good grasp of the situation in the first place.
“That decision made it all the more difficult. Personally, I thought it was a good performance spoiled by one decision and one very small element of the game.
“That’s what happens at this level, it’s one second. Overall, I was happy with my performance, but I feel a little bit let down by the decision for that penalty.
“I tried to say the same things (to the referee at full-time). He’d kicked the ball into my hands, I’d touched the ball. How could he possibly look at that on a screen and think that was a penalty?
“He just told me to go away, that I’d get a yellow card if I continued not to protest.”
Gordon looks ahead to Kilmarnock vs Hearts
Hearts are 11th in the Premiership heading into Sunday’s massive encounter against fellow strugglers Kilmarnock.
A win could propel the Jambos up the table depending on Saturday’s results. Gordon said: “Yes, on to the next one. We need to continue to win games in the league and climb the league.
“It’s going to be a very difficult place to go but it’s a team that is near us in the league, so it’s a big one.
“If we want to continue to climb and catch teams above us, then we need to be taking points from games like this.
“We’ll recover now and get ready for that one. At the moment, outwith Rangers and Celtic, everybody is beating each other and taking points off each other.
“We have to come out on top of that to climb the league. We have to be getting the better of the teams round about us in this period.”