Lugano striker Kevin Behrens once again shows his class against Winterthur - and at the same time that his anger at teammate Georgios Koutsias is far from over: he refrains from shaking hands when he is substituted.
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- Kevin Behrens once again shows his strong form with a goal and an assist in Lugano's 4-1 win over Winterthur.
- During his substitution, he refrains from shaking hands with Georgios Koutsias.
- Despite an internal punishment and public apology, it remains unclear whether further consequences will follow; coach Mattia Croci-Torti is currently prioritizing sporting success over personal harmony.
Kevin Behrens also showed his class against Winterthur with a goal and an assist. Behrens has scored in each of his last four Super League games and now has nine league goals to his name - only Chris Bedia (12) and Christian Fassnacht (11) have scored more often this season.
With Lugano 4-1 up against the bottom team, coach Mattia Croci-Torti makes a double change after 80 minutes.
Mattia Bottani came on for Renato Steffen, while Behrens was given the number 9 ... which belongs to Georgios Koutsias of all people. Behrens knocked the Greek over in a test match two weeks ago and called him a "little freak".
After the attack on his own teammate, the German apologized to the club, teammates and Koutsias a few days later via a club statement. "Regardless of the tension of the moment, I should never have allowed myself to behave like that," the striker was quoted as saying.
No reconciliation with Koutsias?
However, Behrens' anger towards Koutsias does not appear to have been extinguished. Because Behrens refrained from shaking hands with his team-mate when he was substituted and went straight to the players' bench.
Croci-Torti told "SRF " about the scene after the game: "It just takes time and patience. I don't need any friends in the team. All that matters at the moment is that Lugano is successful."
"We're all men," says goalkeeper Amir Saipi, adding: "Maybe we need a knock so that we're all fully there and focused." Of course, the scene wasn't nice, but: "It didn't throw us off track." Saipi continued: "It gave us even more motivation, we've now scored nine goals from two games." However, Saipi said he was glad that he did not have to draw the necessary consequences from the incident as a player.
After the test match scandal, Behrens was "punished", said Lugano sporting director Sebastian Pelzer afterwards. Behrens is said to have received a record fine from the club, according to internal sources. It remains to be seen whether further measures will follow the recent events.
Behrens already made negative headlines at his last employer, Wolfsburg, when he refused to sign one of his club's rainbow jerseys. "I don't sign that kind of gay shit," he said.
