Netherlands have blamed the referee for losing to Iran in a match they wanted to win to assume leadership of Group C.
The Netherlands coach, Albert Stuivenberg told africansportsdigest.com in Enugu that they will always regret losing the game adding that a draw would have been more respectful for the team than the lone goal defeat.
“If not for the mistakes we made when we started, we would have scored one or two goals. But we missed our chances and later on Iran came back into the game making it more difficult for us. The goal was disappointing,” he said.
‘At the end of the match I was very disappointed with the goal we conceded. I truly believed the goal was a referee’s mistake, because we thought it was our free kick, only for my player to leave it to the an opponent. He (the referee) showed a free kick for us, but changed his mind at the last minute and gave it to Iran.
“It was a terrible situation for us. Of course all of us were disappointed. It was good we try everything to come out of the bad situation and put up a good showing in the second half. We took a lot of risk, but missed our chances. Naturally, I was not happy for not getting the 1-1 draw I anticipated after the problem,” said Stuivenberg.
Iran lone goal came in the 25 minutes thus helping the Arabs to end up as group leaders with seven points. Milad Gharibi collected a pass from a quickly taken free-kick and outshone a tired defence before scoring with ease beating the goalkeeper, Hahn.