Elie Youan avoids horror Hibs injury as Lee Johnson hits out at 'aggressive' Europa tackle that sparked melee

Lee Johnson hit out at FC Europa bad boy Nicholas Pazo and insists he was lucky he never seriously injured Elie Youan with a “naughty” tackle in a fiery encounter in Marbella.

Hibs ran out comfortable 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Adam Le Fondre - his first for the club - and Josh Campbell. But in a game which simmered with bad feeling from start to finish it was Pazo’s challenge on Youan, who he caught just below the knee, which was the talking point afterwards. It sparked a mini melee as players from both sides got involved.

And Johnson said: “I said to the boys before the game they’d get that because it’s a foreign country, a foreign ref. We had a bit of intel from Portsmouth, who played them last week, about what they were like. They’re aggressive but also very quick to roll over and scream, which doesn’t add up to us Brits.

“Again, this could happen to us in Europe. It’s a red card, I think everyone knew that to be honest, they should have taken him off. I’m just pleased we didn’t end up reacting and had anybody getting injured through ill-discipline. It was a bad one, it was naughty.

“You get that in pre-season, everyone wants to show up. They’re a side who have lads who’d want to move to a club like ours, so they were massively up for it. In that sense it was a good game because they were up for it, it was aggressive and intense.”

Europa will take their place in the Conference League first qualifying round later this week. But there was clear distance between the sides in terms of quality. The 100 Hibs fans who braved the scorching temperatures were treated to a first glimpse of Dylan Levitt in action for their club after his £300,000 move from Dundee United.

A strong starting XI also featured fellow new boys