‘Was a purple card however Pakistan gamers pushed him’: India coach opens up on Stimac sending off, headbutt incident at SAFF

Whereas India dominated the proceedings all through the 90 minutes, issues acquired intense 5 minutes earlier than the half-time whistle. The incident additionally noticed the referee pull a purple card from his pocket, the one from the match.

It began with India coach Igor Stimac getting himself concerned in a small second as Pakistan’s Abdullah Iqbal acquired prepared for a throw-in. The coach tapped the ball out of Iqbal’s arms, following which his teammate Rahis Nabi rushed in the direction of the Indian technical space and exchanged a couple of phrases with Stimac. The second was sufficient to ship a crowd of over 20,000 current on the stadium right into a frenzy and gamers too acquired concerned.

Whereas gamers and the coaches did not maintain again from venting at one another, Marcelo Schroeder Costa, Pakistan’s goalkeeping coach, appeared probably the most offended. Aside from shoving and pointing fingers at few members from the Indian contingent, Costa was additionally seen headbutting India workforce supervisor Velu Dhayalamani earlier than being separated by the Pakistani gamers and help workers.

India’s assistant coach Mahesh Gawli, who’s a former centre again himself, then took India’s cost within the second half. When enquired by reporters to Gawli to shed some mild on the incident, the assistant coach admitted it was Stimac’s fault however added the referee was a bit harsh.

“It was a red card because he (Igor Stimac) can’t do that. But it was too harsh because Pakistan players came and pushed him. Either referee didn’t see or deliberately didn’t give (red card to them). There wasn’t any red card for any officials, despite one of them headbutting our manager,” he stated on the post-match press convention

Pakistan assistant coach Torben Witajewski additionally handed his remarks on the incident and stated: “there was one situation in the game, but it was not provoked by us.”