Leeds United manager Steve Evans has indicated that Denmark tried to deflect attention from their poor performance against Scotland by focusing on Liam Bridcutt’s challenge on Erik Sviatchenko.
Scotland scored a friendly win over Denmark on Tuesday night at Hampden Park, but the talking point of the game was Bridcutt’s heavy tackle on Sviatchenko, which attracted the wrath of the Danes.
The Celtic defender was annoyed at the Leeds midfielder for the nature of the challenge, and Denmark boss Age Hareide felt that Bridcutt should have received his marching orders for the rash tackle.
However, Evans sees things differently and indicated that the Danes were trying to take focus away from their poor performance against Scotland by turning Bridcutt into a scapegoat for his challenge.
And he insisted that he won’t encourage the Leeds midfielder from shying away from making such a challenge in future.
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The Leeds boss told LUTV: “I have said that there are two things wrong about the challenge.
“Number one is that the media has blown it up, and the second reason is that the player is from Celtic, playing in Scotland.
“Maybe the Danes made too much of it, maybe because they don’t want to talk about the defending on the goal that Scotland scored. They don’t talk about the missed chances, so let’s focus on the challenge.
“It’s a yellow card, but if Liam Bridcutt plays for Leeds against Rotherham on Saturday and the challenge presents itself, do what you did son; you can’t pull out there.”
It was Bridcutt’s first Scotland appearance since his debut against Serbia in a World Cup qualifier in 2013.
