THE BASEL PLAYER at the centre of the incident that saw Liverpool’s Lazar Markovic dismissed last night has hit back at claims that he went down to easily and says that he was bleeding after the Liverpool striker caught him.

Liverpool only managed a 1-1 draw, crashing out of the competition in the process, but the sending off caused major controversy with Brendan Rodgers calling it “a really disappointing decision by the referee”.

Sweden’s Behrang Safari went down after Markovic caught him with a flailing arm although there looked to be very little contact.

However, speaking to Sportbladet the Swedish international said he had been caught.

“Yes, yes. I was bleeding from my mouth.”

“I wouldn’t have gone to ground if he hadn’t hit me. I am not the kind of player who dives.

“It was a bit strange, I didn’t realise that it was a red card at first. I thought the referee had blown his whistle because it was a head injury and I thought I was going to give the ball to the Liverpool players afterwards. But then I noticed that the Liverpool players were angry with me.”

Basel now advance to Monday’s last 16 draw while Liverpool will have to settle for the Europa League.

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