Blame it on the ref
Abahani and Brothers Union both claimed they could have had a penalty and blamed the referee for his poor conducting of the first-leg first semifinal of the Citycell Super Cup yesterday.
Brothers coach Wasim Iqbal said that his side were denied of a genuine penalty after rival fullback Waly Faisal handled the ball inside the area.
"Everyone saw what happened. But we lost the game due to conceding two goals against run of play. Our goalkeeper was partly responsible for those," said the former national winger, whose side gave away a 2-1 lead to lose 3-2 to Abahani at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
"Abahani played well in the end but we will return for the second leg match," he added.
Referee Tayeb Hasan defended his decision.
"The ball hit the hand but it was unintentional. I stuck to the rules," the FIFA referee told.
Veteran Abahani coach Amalesh Sen also pointed out that the referee ignored Brothers defender Ariful's foul on Emily inside the penalty area.
"How could he miss that foul?" Amalesh questioned. "We won the match because we never lost hopes and I told my players to keep attacking after going 2-1 down.
"When we got the freekick, I told Waly to lob the ball to Emily because he has been showing great form recently. The boys did what I said and I believe going 3-2 ahead in the second leg will give us the advantage."
Zahid Hassan Emily has now won two matches for Abahani, scoring winners in two come-from-behind victories against Chittagong Mohammedan and Brothers.
"I believe I had a hand in our B. League turning point. When the team needed me most, I hit form," said two-goal Emily.
"I have a knack to improve my performance in these situations and I am doing just that now. But it not me alone, it was team work that won us the match," the number one striker of the country added.
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