Indian hearts were broken by poor refereeing in a crucial FIFA World Cup qualifier in Doha Tuesday night. Qatar came from behind to win 2-1, sending India out in the second round. India were on the verge of sealing a historic spot in the third round of the qualifiers after Lallianzuala Chhangte scored in the 37th minute and kept India in front till the 73rd minute.
Then came a moment that defied the rules of the game. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu watched the ball roll out of his near post, but Qatar's 20-year-old defender Hashmi Al Hussain dragged it back for Youssef Ayman to calmly slot it in. There was disbelief throughout the Indian backline. Everyone in the vicinity of the ball had seen that it had gone out, everyone except the referee and his assistants. In the absence of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, Indian players could only plead, but the referees were adamant.
In its search for a winner, India came close a few times, but meantime, Ahmed Al Rawi, who had been wasteful all night, saw an opening and fired it into the right bottom corner past Gurpreet. It was game over for India.
The outcome doesn't quite show the intense battle Igor Stimac's boys waged against a superior opponent. Even as Qatar, ranked 34th in the world had fielded a weaker side, having already qualified, India, ranked 121st, showed great character.
The backline of Mehtab Singh, Bheke and Anwar Ali, made clearances on the line, threw themselves in the line of fire, everything they possibly could, to keep Qatar goalless.
In India's first match since iconic striker Sunil Chhetri's retirement, the Men in Blue still had to find a goalscorer. Rahim Ali and Manvir Singh were wasteful, but Chhangte came sliding in to meet a defence-splitting pass from Brandon Fernandes to give India hope.
But one 'illegal' goal, one careless moment of officiating, is all it took to send India down from second position in Group A standings, a sure spot in the third round of the qualifiers, to the bottom. In another Group A match, Kuwait edged Afghanistan 1-0 to take India's deserving spot in the next round.
