“Referee wanted to make it right”: Espen match winner Witzig would have heard of the field

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95th minute in the match between FC St. Gallen and Stade Lausanne-Ouchy. After a duel between FCSG attacker Willem Geubbels and Lausanne defender Lucas Pos, referee Johannes von Mandach (29) pointed to the penalty point. A difficult, but probably right, decision. Christian Witzig (23) takes the ball and converts the penalty into a 1-0 winning goal for St. Gallen.

The FCSG home team would have had to leave the field exactly 36 minutes in advance. But referee Von Mandach, who generally had a generous line, turned a blind eye to Witzig’s foul against Ouchy’s Romain Bayard (59th) and allowed mercy to prevail over justice. So Witzig ultimately became the match winner.

“It was happy”

“I was very happy that I was still on the field for the penalty. “It was very lucky,” grinned the goalscorer. “But I think the referee wanted to make up for it after the first half, when there wasn’t even a yellow card after the foul on me (Witzig points to a crack in his lower right leg). After my mistake he also said, ‘That was the last thing you did. No more words, no more mistakes, nothing!’ I stuck with that.” The referee “helps” St. Gallen to victory – and Witzig to his first professional penalty.

The winning goal was not only Witzig’s second goal of the season, but also the first penalty in his third professional season in St. Gallen. And he earned the right to take this penalty during training for the match against Lausanne-Ouchy on Thursday. “We practiced the penalty and Christian scored against all three goalkeepers,” said St. Gallen coach Peter Zeidler (61), who explained the selection of Witzig as penalty taker. “That’s why it was agreed before the match that Christian would shoot. And he also has the coolness with which he hits the ball.”

“More pressure is not possible”

The shooter was very nervous about the penalty, but he still made a safe right to win. “There is probably no more pressure in injury time for your own fans. I put the ball down, knew where I wanted to shoot and ran away quickly so as not to give the goalkeeper any time. And then the ball was in. I dreamed of a situation like this as a youth player.”

It was clear that everyone jumped on Witzig after the goal – including coach Zeidler, who started sprinting from the bench. “The sprint was really bad. I thought: if Witzig takes the penalty, I will try to run as fast as possible. It took a long time, the boys were almost done partying when I finally arrived,” Zeidler laughed about his debut when one of his teams scored.

Source : Blick