“We only have ourselves to blame”: Head coach Igor Stimac’s honest take on India’s Merdeka Cup loss

India’s men’s football team head coach Igor Stimac pinpointed the areas where the Blue Tigers lacked in their semi-final defeat against Malaysia in the Merdeka Tournament.
On Friday, India’s Merdeka Tournament campaign ended in disappointment as they went down to host Malaysia 2-4 in the semi-final at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
It was a match that involved a few controversial refereeing decisions, which included the cancellation of a ‘goal’ scored by India in the second half.
Talking about such decisions, Stimac admitted that even though some of the decisions didn’t go in their favour they only have themselves to blame for their defeat.
“Even after having a goal taken away from us and playing against favourable decisions for the home team, we only have ourselves to blame for last night’s loss. Our defending was poor, gifting them a couple of goals + We created more than enough chances to win and we should’ve put the game to rest in the second half. Proud of all my boys who didn’t give up till the last whistle. There’s more work to be done before we take on Asia’s biggest teams,” Stimac wrote on X.
https://x.com/stimac_igor/status/1713234067909673234?s=20
Coming to the match, India trailed by a scoreline of 1-3 in the half-time. India made a strong comeback in the second half to reduce the deficit with skipper Sunil Chhetri making his place on the scoresheet.
However, their hopes of making a comeback suffered a setback when the referee, refused to accept Lallianzuala Chhangte’s shot in the 56th minute of the game.
Still wounded by the referee’s decision, India were caught off guard as Malaysia struck their fourth goal in the 61st minute through La’vere Corbin-Ong putting the final nail in the coffin.