"Tough decision"

“Horror!” ÖFB legionnaire disappointed after red card

Marco Friedl saw the red card in the match against Mainz 05 and is still disappointed about it.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Werder captain Marco Friedl was shown a red card in the closing stages of the match against Mainz 05 on Sunday, seriously weakening his team. In the end, Bremen won 2:1, but Friedl is unhappy with the referee's decision. Having to watch was pure horror, complained the captain. 

In the 60th minute of the match, Friedl saw Mainz professional Jae Sung Lee running alone towards the Werder goal with the score at 1:1. The ÖFB international saw no other option than to stop the South Korean with a foul. Referee Benjamin Brand showed him the red card for this, judging the action to be an emergency brake. 

A decision with which Friedl struggles, as he explained after the game: "I think it's a harsh decision. It's certainly not a clearly wrong decision. But it was the case that I hit the Mainz player but had already touched the ball lightly beforehand." Having to leave the pitch because of such a scene and only being able to watch the rest of the game was "pure horror", said the Austrian.

Friedl recently attracted attention with criticism
Although Bremen were outnumbered for around 30 minutes, they still managed to score the winning goal to win 2-1. "Huge praise for the team! What they managed to do when they were outnumbered was incredible," said Friedl, praising the "monster mentality" of his team-mates.

For Friedl, who has also recently attracted attention with criticism of coach Ole Werner and ÖFB team boss Ralf Rangnick, two more games now await in which he can only watch and hope. The captain is at least expecting this punishment himself.