BLACKBURN midfielder Robbie Savage has called on UEFA to take strong action against Feyenoord after Morten Gamst Pedersen was struck in the face with a plastic glass during Thursday night's feisty encounter in Rotterdam.

Pedersen got showered in beer when a fan through the pint glass at him during the first half of the 0-0 draw at Feyenoord's intimidating De Kuip' stadium.

Manager Mark Hughes later attempted to play down the incident, but Savage believes UEFA needs to send out a message' by punishing the Dutch club, otherwise they run the risk of seeing a player get seriously hurt in the future.

The Welshman said: "Morten had a full pint thrown over him. He was covered in beer - and he's a lad who doesn't even drink!

"But it's not funny. He was lucky it was just a soft plastic container.

"You always fear it will be a hard object that could cause a lot of harm.

"Morten and everyone else comes away from incidents like that wondering how much worse it could have been.

"It's very, very wrong for people to throw things. It shouldn't happen at any level of the game.

"UEFA has to punish clubs if their fans do stuff like that to send out the right message to the rest."

Thursday's incident was the latest in a series of similar episodes which are blighting the game.

In recent weeks in the Premiership, Arsenal's Robin van Persie and the Fulham midfielder Claus Jensen have both been struck by objects thrown from the crowd, whilst a fourth official ended up spending a night in hospital after he was struck by a coin in the FA Cup tie between Swansea and Newport County.

Now Pedersen is the latest victim of what appears to be a worrying trend and UEFA have opened an investigation into the incident.

A spokesman said: "The matter was mentioned by the UEFA match delegate and a case has been opened.

"It will be investigated and is likely to be dealt with by the control and disciplinary panel on December 7."