Vanhaezebrouck left to rue costly red cards

Gent coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck insists his side would have gone on to win their Champions League Group H opener with Lyon on Wednesday were it not for Brecht Dejaegere's dismissal, but has no complaints over Thomas Foket's late red card.

Winger Dejaegere was shown a straight red for a lunging tackle on Maxime Gonalons just before half-time with his side in the ascendency against a sluggish Lyon, who saw Christophe Jallet's opener cancelled out by Danijel Milicevic's equaliser.

Foket was also given his marching orders for conceding a late penalty that was, fortunately for the hosts, palmed away by goalkeeper Matz Sels.

And Vanhaezebrouck was left adamant that had all his players stayed on the pitch, his side would have secured victory in what was their first Champions League group stage appearance.

He said:  "I am pleased that we are here to get a point. But we could have taken all three.

"I am just very sorry that we could not have an equal number of players playing this game. I'm pretty sure we would have won then."

However, the 51-year old said: "The red cards were justified. Both. But we still have to be smarter.

"[Samuel] Umtiti on [Laurent] Depoitre for example. If he goes down, it is always a red and it's 10 to 10. But Laurent is still lacking a bit of experience.

"But for the rest of the game he was truly outstanding."

Vanhaezebrouck was less complementary about his side's defending for Lyon's goal, but was still delighted at the overall performance of his players. 

He added: "They forgot to pick up Jallet, which is simple. But I cannot blame my boys really. 

"When I see how hard they have worked to make this evening. I'm very proud of my boys."