Injustice was done, our dream killed by irregular goal: Stimac

Doha: India football coach Igor Stimac said “injustice” was done and his team’s “dream was killed” by the blatantly “irregular” goal that allowed Qatar to claw back and clinch the must-win World Cup qualifying match here.

India suffered a 1-2 defeat at the home of the two-time Asian champions to bow out of contention from the third round of qualification for the 2026 World Cup. The visitors were leading 1-0 before Qatar scored the contentious equaliser by dragging the ball back after it had crossed the line to go out 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.

The loss, however, cannot hide the fact that India have been consistently poor in their campaign, the lowest point being a home loss to Afghanistan. But on Tuesday, which was India’s first game after the talismanic Sunil Chhetri’s retirement, Stimac said his players gave their everything and he had no

complaints.