Copenhagen boss Jacob Neestrup has fired back at Hearts counterpart Neil Critchley’s penalty moan – branding it “ridiculous” and insisting his side would have won Thursday’s Euro tie regardless.
Critchley blasted ref Andrea Colombo over his decision to award the Danes a 78th minute spot kick after a VAR review of Craig Gordon’s challenge on Amin Chiakha. Kevin Diks netted from 12 yards to make the score 2-0. Furious Critchley dubbed the decision “really poor” and said it torpedoed his plan to throw everything at a late leveller. However, home boss Neestrup shot down that suggestion and said: “I think it’s a penalty. Amin touched the ball and then the goalie… there’s a collision.
“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 10 times anyway.”
Hearts now need to beat Moldovans Petrocub in Gorgie on Thursday to secure a play off spot for the last 16. A draw might be enough. But they were second best to a classy Copenhagen outfit who jumped above them in the table thanks to the win in the Parken Stadium.
Neestrup said: “With all respect, I think we have total control of the game from second one 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. An amazing club, by the way, and a great team, but I just think that we kept ourselves on an extremely high level and showed the difference that has to be between FC Copenhagen and Hearts.
“But do you know what? This game we played today has been exactly the same in our two previous home games against Jagiellonia and Istanbul. But 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 today because we have lost five in our two home games before that.”