Crystal Palace manager Frank de Boer has said that he is unhappy with the treatment Wilfried Zaha received at the hands of the West Bromwich Albion players during today's pre-season friendly in Hong Kong.
Zaha was on the end of some heavy challenges during the third-place playoff of the Premier League Asia Trophy, but he still helped the Eagles to a 2-0 win courtesy of goals from Luka Milivojevic and Bakary Sako.
De Boer believes that the referee should have taken a tougher stance on the Baggies players despite it only being a friendly, insisting that the winger was in danger of picking up an injury due to the physical treatment being meted out.
"If you want to sell the product of the Premier League and the beauty of the game, the beauty is not those kind of challenges," he told reporters.
"Of course when it's a fair challenge it's no problem, but for example they were really looking for Wilfried Zaha so we cannot accept that. He is one of the most exciting players in the Premier League and I don't want to think about him being out for a couple of weeks or months.
"The first challenge on him should have been a yellow card and then the player knows that he cannot do another one, but instead you give him the permit to do another challenge. I have to give Wilf a compliment because he stayed calm, spoke with his feet and made a big step forward.
"Because of his speed, quality and technique sometimes he will get past two or three players and he is so fast he will get fouled a lot. If the referee looks back then he could have had two or three more fouls in his favour."
Zaha scored seven goals in 35 Premier League appearances for Palace last season.
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