By Celia Roche
Danish champions FC Nordsjælland were left sore on Tuesday night after their 5-2 defeat at home to Shakhtar Donetsk (currently massive outsiders in the Champions League bets to win this season’s competition) in the UEFA Champions League witnessed a gross abuse of sportsmanship in the first half.
Nordsjælland held a 1-0 lead inside Denmark’s national stadium and looked all geared up to upset the bet365 football betting odds as Morten Nordstrand went down injured. The referee, Antony Gautier of France, took the right course of action and stopped the game for a head injury, restarting again by instructing Shakhtar’s midfielder Willian to kick the ball back to Nordsjælland’s goalkeeper.
The process of fair play was all going according to plan until Shakhtar’s Luiz Adriano, apparently unaware of the last 90 seconds of action, latched onto the looping ball, rounded goalkeeper Jesper Hansen and tapped into the empty net. The boos and jeers did not cease in Parken as Nordstrand, upon taking the kick-off and jogging directly to Shakhtar’s goal, was tackled by Taras Stepanenko.
“I don’t know if Shakhtar are bandits, but some of their players, bosses and coaches are without morals,” Nordsjælland coach Kasper Hjulmand said after the game. “In my world it’s unsportsmanlike conduct.”
“[If my team did that] I would have called the team to the side and told them to give away a goal. I would have done that, 100%.”
Indeed, Hjulmand has every right to be sickened by what he saw as Shakhtar cast away sportsmanship for the sake of a goal. Although Gautier cannot act upon the situation, surely common sense prevails and Nordsjælland are allowed to score at the other end.
It was a disgraceful act of cowardice on Stepanenko’s part to tackle Nordstrand after the restart, as much as it was for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to congratulate Adriano for his finish. There should be no place in football for such acts of unsportsmanlike behavior but unfortunately the laws of the game trust players, rather than a higher judgment.
