Swedish striker Mathias Ranégie, who plays for Gothenburg side BK Häcken in Sweden’s top-flight Allsvenskan league, and midfielder Gustav Svensson, who plays for Bursaspor in Bursa, northwestern Turkey south of Istanbul, were dining at Café Tintin in central Gothenburg in the early hours of Sunday morning.

While waiting for their food, a row erupted with a gang of seven women in their early 20s, newspaper Expressen reported on Monday. According to the report, the women had placed the same order as the players.

“They wanted to take our food and started arguing with us, yelling a lot of shit and behaving aggressively,” Ranégie told Expressen.

Police were called to the scene at 6.10am to defuse the situation. Ranégie and Svensson were ejected from the diner and were about to leave when the women spilled out on the street after them, the report said.

A police patrol witnessed a woman in her early 20s punching Ranégie in the face, resulting in blood gushing out of his eyebrow, according to the report.

“The police sat in their car across the street. I got a good hit and have a big scar on my face now. But what should I have done? I could not fight back against a girl,” he told Expressen.

The woman who threw the punches is currently under suspicion of assault, while the others were reported by the footballers to the police for mobbing.