Austrian player says referee was 'scared' to send off Ibrahimovic for elbow on Alaba

Austrian players voiced their displeasure with referee Pavel Královec following their 1-1 draw against Sweden in Monday's Euro 2016 qualifier, accusing the official of being too scared to show Zlatan Ibrahimovic a red card for a perceived elbow to the face of left-back David Alaba.

See video of the incident below.

The Paris Saint-Germain superstar seemed to connect with the Bayern Munich defender in the first half after flailing his arm backwards while shielding the ball, but escaped any punishment from the Czech referee.

When asked about the incident after the final whistle, centre-back Aleksandar Dragovic didn't mince words.

“It was a red card for me. The referee was scared of Zlatan," he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Zlatan, not surprisingly, had a far different take on the situation.

“The referee has everything under control,” he said after the match. “He [Alaba] goes into me twice and the third time I try to shield the ball and he [Alaba] is 1.50m or 1.60m tall and then he obviously reaches up to my elbow. The referee blew for a free-kick so, of course, he has got the situation under control.”

He went on to joke that he should be "banned for 40 matches" for the incident, showing just how dismissive he is of the Austrian accusations.

In fairness to the match referee at the center of all this, Zlatan is a black belt in taekwondo. You probably wouldn't want to give him a red card, either.