India soccer coach Igor Stimac mentioned “injustice” was finished and his workforce’s “dream was killed” by the blatantly “irregular” objective that allowed Qatar to claw again and clinch the must-win World Cup qualifying match in Doha. India suffered a 1-2 defeat on the house of the two-time Asian champions to bow out of rivalry from the third spherical of qualification for the 2026 World Cup. The guests have been main 1-0 earlier than Qatar scored the contentious equaliser by dragging the ball again after it had crossed the road to exit of play.
“Qatar have been fortunate tonight, particularly as a result of they got here again from 0-1 with an irregular objective. I can verify that now as a result of I’ve seen the replay. The entire ball was out of play and the objective was given,” Stimac did not mince phrases as he spoke about what went improper within the recreation.
“It should not be occurring in immediately’s soccer as a result of that objective modified the whole lot on this recreation. It may’ve occurred to Qatar immediately and I might say the identical. I am not in search of an excuse.
“I really feel unhappy that when you’ve 23 boys working actually onerous and residing the dream, to attain one thing, and that dream is killed as a result of we did not cease such issues from occurring,” the Croat added.
The loss, nonetheless, can’t conceal the truth that India have been constantly poor of their marketing campaign, the bottom level being a house loss to Afghanistan. However on Tuesday, which was India’s first recreation after the talismanic Sunil Chhetri’s retirement, Stimac mentioned his gamers gave their the whole lot and he had no complaints.
“They have been improbable. All Indian followers will be happy with their workforce immediately. We managed the sport for a significant half, with a excessive press towards a great Qatari workforce. You could possibly say that the probabilities India had have been higher than Qatar’s,” he mentioned.
Aside from the baffling Qatari equaliser, Stimac additionally highlighted a number of Indian shortcomings.
“We must always have scored thrice within the first half to kill the sport positively,” he mentioned.
“However there’s something which is lacking in Indian soccer, and that is scientific reactions contained in the field,” he identified.
Qatar’s equaliser by Yousef Aymen within the 73rd minute took the wind out of India’s sails, completely turning the momentum within the hosts’ favour, who accomplished the comeback within the eighty fifth minute with an excellent Ahmed Al-Rawi long-ranger that Gurpreet Singh Sandhu could not have finished a lot about.
A victory would have given India a spot within the third spherical of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for the primary time, alongside direct qualification for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.
Now, India’s bid to make the continental match for the third successive time will take them to the Asian Cup Qualifiers Third Spherical, which is scheduled to start in March 2025.
“It is sort of an injustice to my boys tonight as a result of we have been very near successful this recreation and qualifying for the third spherical, but it surely did not occur. Congratulations to the Qatari workforce,” Stimac mentioned.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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