India vs Malaysia: India’s 4-2 loss to hosts Malaysia on Friday at the Merdeka Cup was plagued with controversy. A host of poor refereeing decisions costed the Blue Tigers the match. The most controversial decision denied the Indian team an equaliser when the score was 3-2 in favour of Malaysia. The fans of the Blue Tigers was left immensely frustrated at the end of the game. Many wondered if the outcome of the match would have been different without the questionable calls.
Controversial calls galore
India started the match on backfoot, with the hosts scoring the opener in the seventh minute through Dion Cools. That goal could’ve been offside. However, the linesman decided Sahal had been playing Dion onside and no flag was raised.
India’s equaliser six minutes later was cancelled out by another controversial call in the 20th minute. The referee awarded a penalty to the hosts when Nikhil Poojari was penalised for pushing a Malaysia player inside the box.
The most controversial decision of the match came in the second half. The referee denied India an equaliser in the 54th minute when Lallianzuala Chhangte’s shot went over the goal line before being cleared by the Malaysian defence. However, the referee and the linesman both claimed that the ball did not completely go over the line and denied a clear goal to India.
The social media was abuzz about the topic of the match with AIFF General Secretary Shaji Prabhakaran leading the protest against poor refereeing. “Robbed”, Prabhakaran wrote on his X (previously Twitter) account. Let’s check out some of the reactions doing round on social media.
India XI: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sandesh Jhingan, Akash Mishra, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Sunil Chhetri, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Sahal Abdul Samad, Rohit Kumar, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Nikhil Poojary, Mehtab Singh.
Malaysia XI: Sythan Hazmi, Matthew Davies (C), Dominic Tan, Faisal Halim, Darren Lok, Arif Aiman, Endrick, Nooa Lane, Akhyar Rashid, Dionj Cools, Corbin Ong
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