Nigeria international midfielder Raphael Onyedika has received strong backing from coach of Club Brugge Nicky Hayen after his sending off in his team’s 1-3 loss to AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Onyedika who was sent off in the Belgium League against Union SG 17 days ago was given his marching order in the 40th minute after a VAR review of his tackle on Tijjani Reijnders, which was initially given as a foul in his favor.
“That duel was hard against hard, the fourth referee even came to see if it wasn’t a red card for them. Then of course we were surprised that we got them. But I haven’t seen the images yet. At that moment you can speak of a bit of bad luck”, he said.
He however said after ensuring that the 23 year old is comforted they will have a conversation with him about his recent spate of red cards, but was clear that it won’t lead to dropping him from the team.
“We have comforted him now. Tomorrow we will have a quiet conversation about it. We are also a warm club in that area, one that doesn’t drop players.”
“This is how we will look for solutions together, I don’t want him to change his game, but these kinds of mistakes have to be made. We have to get smarter in that. It’s not always easy to learn that”, Hayes concludes.
He will serve a two game suspension effectively ruling him out of their next game, which will be against Aston Villa the surprise leaders of the UEFA Champions League in it’s new format
