Premier League overturns red card for Brighton's Struijk
Brighton has successfully appealed against a red card for defender Pascal Struijk. From the referee's point of view, the decision had been particularly frustrating.
Brighton & Hove Albion are celebrating successes this autumn not only on the pitch, but also off it from time to time. On Wednesday, manager Fabian Hürzeler's club announced that the red card shown to centre-back Pascal Struijk had been retrospectively overturned, meaning he will avoid the mandatory suspension.
Struijk had been sent off in the 57th minute of last Saturday's Premier League away match at AFC Sunderland for an alleged professional foul. Four minutes earlier, Maxim de Cuyper had put the visitors ahead following an assist from former international Pascal Groß.
Sunderland thought they were close to an equaliser when Struijk brought down Sunderland's centre-forward Wilson Isidor, who was just making a run into the Brighton penalty area following a through ball headed towards him. Referee Tom Bramall initially took no action, but was advised by VAR Neil Davies to review the incident in the review area and, to the utter bewilderment of the Seagulls, brandished a red card.
Indeed, there were considerable doubts as to whether Isidor would have reached the ball ahead of Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen at all. Although the visitors held on to their lead even with ten men and, thanks to substitute Jaouen Hadjam (90+3), even celebrated a 2-0 away win, they refused to accept that Struijk should face a suspension - and have now been proved right.
Struijk is eligible to play against Brighton's arch-rivals The 27-year-old summer signing from Leeds, who partners former Hamburg player Luka Vuskovic at centre-back, will therefore be available to Hürzeler when Brighton host arch-rivals Crystal Palace on Sunday (3 pm) as they look to defend their third place in the table. With four wins and one draw from their first six matchdays, only league leaders Manchester City (6/0/0) and defending champions Arsenal (5/1/0) have a better record.
This Thursday (9 pm), however, Brighton will first face Lithuanian side FK Kauno Zalgiris in their Conference League opener. Struijk would have been eligible to play in this match even without an appeal.