Our dream killed by irregular goal: Stimac
India football coach Igor Stimac said “injustice” was done and his team’s “dream was killed” by a blatant “irregular” goal that allowed Qatar to claw back and clinch the mustwin World Cup qualifying match 2-1 here on Tuesday.
India was leading 1-0 before Qatar scored the contentious equaliser by dragging the ball back after it had crossed the line of play.
“Qatar were lucky tonight, especially because they came back from 0-1 with an irregular goal. I can confirm that now because I have seen the replay. The whole ball was out of play and the goal was given,” Stimac didn’t mince words as he spoke about what went wrong in the game.
“It shouldn’t be happening in today’s football because that goal changed everything in this game. It could’ve happened to Qatar today and I would say the same. I’m not looking for an excuse.
“I feel sad that when you have 23 boys working really hard and living the dream, to achieve something, and that dream is killed because we didn’t stop such things from happening,” the Croat added.
“They were fantastic. All Indian fans can be proud of their team today. We controlled the game for a major part, with a high press against a good Qatari team. You could say that the chances India had were
Stimac.
better said.
Stimac also highlighted a few Indian shortcomings. “We should have scored thrice in the first half to kill the game definitely,” he said. “But there is something which is missing in Indian football, and that’s clinical reactions inside the box,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, Stimac, who had ‘promised’ to leave if he failed in his “mission” to take India into the third round, said he was not so sure and said he would need a few more days to figure things out.
“That’s something we need to discuss internally in the next few weeks where our futures stand. There is nothing I can tell you now,” the 56-year-old, who took over in 2019, said.
Meanwhile, the All India Football Federation has sought a thorough investigation into the controversial goal, the AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey said on Wednesday while urging the concerned authorities to “address the injustice”. than
Qatar’s,” he