India suffered a heartbreaking loss to higher-ranked Iraq within the semifinal of the King’s Cup because the Sunil Chhetri-less facet went down 4-5 in penalties on Thursday. India had been on the course of a historic win over Iraq and had been main 2-1 until the 79th minute. However the Western Asian nation was awarded a penalty when two Indian defenders squeezed the Iraq striker Ghadhban within the field. He discovered the again of the online to equalize earlier than Iraq defeated the Males in Blue in penalties 5-4.
After the loss, head coach Igor Stimac has slammed the referees over the penalty name, stating that somebody robbed the victory of his crew. “Our boys left every little thing on that pitch tonight and I’m immensely happy with them! Somebody determined to rob them of profitable tonight however the time will come earlier than many count on that even referees won’t be able to cease my boys profitable such video games!” Stimac stated after the loss.
In the meantime, the crew captain Gurpreet Singh Sandhu additionally known as the awarded penalty questionable.”Clearly, it is a laborious consequence to digest. I feel we may’ve gained the sport. Sadly, the second penalty which was awarded was questionable,” Sandhu informed the AIFF.
The Indian crew got here into the match with out the providers of normal captain Sunil Chhetri, who opted out as a result of private causes. Sandhu praised the crew for the efficiency it confirmed within the competitors. “However once more, we did a lot, a lot better than what I feel individuals would have thought. And we simply have to imagine in ourselves. We’ve to be a bit extra affected person and constructive, which we had been. We have to be humble and in addition guarantee that we do not give away probabilities the best way we did. Sadly, Iraq bought their probabilities to come back again and win the sport,” he added.
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