Jovan Kostovski was sent off minutes before the halftime break after the referee took out a direct red card for Jovan’s dangerous lunge on an opposing player.
The incident occurred in the 39th minute when Lierse midfielder Tony Watt was retrieving to regain the ball, and that’s when Kostovski, who was tracking back from his CF position, made a sliding lunge with his right foot to bring down Watt. The referee came running in and without hesitation took out a direct red card to the disbelief of Kostovski and his teammates. Jovan could only laugh as his hands were over his head.
Luc Wouters, the match referee, ruled that Kostovski made a dangerous lunge in bringing down Watt, not making a play for the ball, so that is why he took out the red card. Overall, that was a terrible two minute stretch for OH Leuven as midfielder Evariste Ngolok was sent off in the 38th minute (picked up his second yellow card). Despite the fact that OH Leuven played with 9 men for more than an hour, they still managed a point as the game finished 0:0.
OH Leuven played its first game under new manager Ivan Leko, and Kostovski certainly did not get off to the best of starts with his red card in Leko’s managerial debut. OH Leuven remains second from bottom on the standings with just 24 points. There are only two more rounds remaining in the Belgian regular season, before play-off season gets underway. From the 16 teams in that league, following the completion of 30 rounds, the top 6 teams will then compete in the championship play-offs, teams from 7th to 14th place compete in the Europa League play-offs, while the bottom two teams face-off in the relegation play-offs. As of right now, OH Leuven and Mons, the team managed by Chedomir Janevski, are the bottom two teams. Mons has no chance of escaping the bottom two, while OH Leuven will need two wins from its final two games and a lot of help from other teams to somehow avoid the relegation play-off, something that is very unlikely given their current run of form.
After watching the video, how do you feel about the red card? Was it too harsh, or was the referee right in his decision to dismiss Kostovski? Let us know in the comments section.