Sebastian Coates, once of Liverpool, had a truly nightmarish game for Sporting Lisbon on Saturday.
Sporting fell to their first defeat of the season against Rio Ave despite leading 2-1 with less than five minutes of normal time remaining, and Coates played a central role in their late collapse.
His horror-show started in the sixth minute when he saw yellow after giving away a penalty and the opposition grabbed the lead.
Fast forward to the 86th minute, when Mehdi Taremi went down under his challenge for a second time and another spot-kick was awarded and duly converted.
Remarkably, Coates’ third tackle on Taremi in the area in stoppage time brought a third penalty, resulting in a red card for the Uruguayan and defeat for his side.
So, to clarify: that’s three penalties given away and a red card in one game. It doesn’t get much worse than that.
Coates, who made 24 appearances for us between 2011 and 2013, is a regular starter for the Liga NOS side, so hopefully for his sake he can put this so-called disasterclass behind him.