Short pleasure
Curious scene: footballer sees the red card after 20 seconds
Ricard Fernández’s elbow hit Kamil Glik of the white-clad Poles
© Imago Images
The game is only a few seconds old, a long ball is supposed to find Andorra’s attacker Ricard Fernandez, but he only finds his opponent – with an elbow blow. For this he has to leave the place as early as hardly anyone before him.
This is probably not how Ricard Fernandez had imagined his working day. The attacker from Andorra saw the red card in the World Cup qualifier against Poland after just a few seconds. His team hit the ball far into their opponents’ field shortly after the game started on Friday evening, but before the ball reached Fernandez, Fernandez had already rammed his elbow into the head of his opponent Kamil Glik. The referee saw the action and considered it a deliberate blow. Despite numerous protests from the players from Andorra, the referee Fernandez dismissed the field after a hand-stopped 20 seconds. The elbow strike occurred after just ten seconds.
Fernandez flew quickly from the pitch, but it goes even faster: A little more than 20 years ago, a Welsh amateur footballer reacted to the kick-off with “Fuck me, that was loud” and after two seconds saw them because of “foul language” Red card. A player from Chippenham Town FC also got a red card for a foul after three seconds.
Football dwarf Andorra had entered the game as a blatant outsider anyway. After the additional weakening by the early dismissal, the guests around superstar Robert Lewandowski had an easy game in the following 89 minutes: it was 4-1 for Poland in the end, Lewandowski had scored two of the goals.
Poland secured second place
With this success, Poland has at least secured second place in Group I. This entitles the holder to qualify for the World Cup in the playoff rounds. Group winners in Group I will most likely go to England. Andorra is behind on the penultimate place. Only the little San Marion is worse off with zero points and minus 35 goals. The last games in this World Cup qualifying group will be played on Monday.
In Group J, Germany has already qualified ahead of schedule for the soccer World Cup in Qatar next year with 24 points from nine games. On Thursday, Hansi Flick’s team had beaten Lichtenstein 9-0. Germany will play their last qualifying game against Armenia on Sunday evening.
Sources: “Kicker” , “T-Online”,