By Chris Wright
Fair to say that Wednesday night’s Romanian Liga 1 fixture between Petrolul and Gaz Metan was a little on the feisty side, especially as the former ended the game with nine men on the field and the latter with just seven after a total of six red cards were administered over the course of the evening.
The most fantastical passage of play, however, came about an hour in, when Gaz Metan striker Tha’er Bawab collapsed with an “injury” in the centre circle. Believing his opponent to be faking said boo-boo, one of the Petrolul players charged over and yanked Bawab to his feet using a combination of various limbs.
During the resulting petulant scuffle, Petrolul ‘keeper Mircea Bornescu charged up the pitch to get involved, at first restraining Bawab, then sinking his teeth into the striker’s bicep. The gnash-happy goalie was then punched in the face for his trouble before being shown a straight red card.
Cue the “OMG I CANTZ BELIEVE ITZ” face as Bornescu threw his hands in the air in sheer disbelief at the howling injustice on display…
All this happened with the score at 0-1 to Gaz Metan though, as a result of the myriad stoppages, the 15 minutes of injury time tacked on the end of the second half gave Petrolul plenty of time to nab a late, late 114th-minute equaliser!