"It was close to us and we saw what happened," Hiddink told BT Sport when asked about the incident. "Paredes gave him a push in the back and after that there was a stumbling between the two of them, and then he put his hands to his face and Diego was nowhere near his face.
"They tried to provoke him a bit but I have to defend him on what I see, and that is the reality of what we saw just in front of our eyes.
Costa knows he was provoked. When things are going wrong they go wrong, but when they are provoked I protect my players and I think it's very fair. He was very calm at half-time. We were just focusing on our goal and he was focusing on that and not on other provocations."
Watford captain Troy Deeney insisted that Costa ought to go into the referees book and he will also speak with paredes so that such will not occur in future matches
"It's new age football, isn't it?" Deeney asked. "One little touch and everyone goes rolling around. My opinion was that the ref had spoken to him previously, so if he's going to speak to him again then surely it's a yellow card. That's all I was asking. To be fair, it's just handbags between everyone and modern day football.
"I remember playing Sunday League and that wouldn't have happened. The age that we live in, everyone pushes each other and rolls around trying to get the other person sent off. I don't really like it personally and I'll be having a word with Paredes on our side."
"I think we were worth a win," he insisted. "The only period we had a bit of difficulty was in the first 10 minutes when they pushed but had no clear chances.
"They are dangerous at set-pieces, corners, free-kicks etcetera, but in the second half we didn't have much of a problem. We controlled [the game] and in the last 20 minutes we deserved to win. We had a threat on both wings and in the centre. Gomes will be the man of the match, I think."
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