Hyderabad: The Indian football team exited from the World Cup qualification with a defeat to Qatar by 2-1 on Tuesday but tier elimination was marred with controversy because of the poor Refereeing from South Korean match officials.
Till the 73rd minute of the match, it looked as if India will advance to the next round of the World Cup Qualifiers as they were leading 1-0 against Qatar in a must-win game courtesy of Lallianzuala Chhangte’s goal.
However, disaster struck the Indian football team as Qatar were awarded a free-kick. Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu saved a header from Youssef Aymen. But, the ball went past through him and crossed the line for a corner kick for Qatar. However, Alhashmi Mohialdin pulled back the ball into the play with a backheel and Youssef Aymen struck it into the goalpost. Meanwhile, the Indian team had stopped playing considering the ball had gone out of bounds.
They protested in unison after the goal but with no VAR, the goal stood. The Indian team lost momentum after that and conceded another goal another goal a few minutes later. They lost the match 2-1 as a result and were knocked out of the race to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Many users reacted after the incident on the social media and expressed their outrage.
The Indian team were dominating the passage of play in the first half, but the last 30 minutes changed the scenario and they were out of the Qualifiers as a result.
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