Daniel Siebert pulled out yellow cards from his breast pocket on eight occasions on Friday evening in Parken Stadium But he failed to show any red cards, which caused huge frustrations for the Danish national team coach, Brian Riemer.
Riemer thought that the German referee had the opportunity to show the red card for Scottish player in two situations in the goalless draw against Scotland.
"I think that the tackle on Pierre (Emile-Hojbjerg, ed.) was a clear red card. It's the spuds directly on his thighs. I can't understand that", said Riemer to TV2.dk, referring to an incident during the first half when Ryan Christie received a yellow card for a hard tackle on the defensive midfielder from Olympique Marseille.
In the other situation, Daniel Siebert was called out to the VAR screen after 70 minutes to make a call on whether Max Johnston, as the last defender, denied an obvious scoring opportunity when he stopped a Danish counterattack with his arm. Siebert chose to only give the Scottish defender a yellow card to Riemer's disbelief.
"I don't know if it's me who doesn't understand the rules properly, but if it's not taking away an obvious scoring opportunity for a defender to just take the ball with his arm... I don't get it. I did not get an explanation other than it was not an obvious scoring opportunity", said Brian Riemer, who emphasizes that the lack of red cards was not an excuse for Denmark's poor performance.
"We played to their strengths with countless deliveries into their box, which they were very comfortable dealing with. We needed more patience in our build-up", said Riemer.
Denmark will face Greece on Monday in Athens in their next World Cup qualifier.