25 July,2011 08:13 AM IST | | IANS
India's football coach Armando Colaco blamed poor refereeing for his team's 0-3 loss to United Arab Emirates
(UAE) in Saturday's first-leg of the Asian qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Colaco accused Qatari referee Mohammed Al Dosari for killing the match in the first 23 minutes of the game. "I think the red cards were unnecessary. It would have been a very nice game as both the teams looked at par but the referee killed it," he said.
India defender Debabrata Roy and star goalkeeper Subrata Paul were red-carded within 23 minutes and visitors gifted a 2-0 lead to the hosts. Hamdan Al Kamali and Mohammed Al Shehhi converted the penalties while Al Hammadi completed the tally nine minutes from time.
"My question is, do those incidents merit a red card? In the case of Roy, the goalkeeper was behind him. He was not the last defender," said Colaco.
