KOLKATA, MARCH 24
East Bengal boss Phillipe de Ridder was left predictably seething after seeing his side go down to a controversial goal six minutes from time in a 3-2 defeat to Al Qadsia at Salt Lake Stadium on Wednesday.
East Bengal had fought back from an early two-goal deficit as Subhash Singh and Yusif Yakubu cancelled out strikes from Badar Al Motwa and Jehad Al Hossain in the AFC Cup Group D clash.
With six minutes remaining, East Bengal player Soumik Dey was left writhing in pain on the field but instead of putting the ball out, Al Qadsia launched a quick counter attack that was finished off by Al Motwa.
And de Ridder criticised what he perceived as a lack of Fair Play from the Kuwaitis. “The ball should have been put out,” insisted the Belgian. “FIFA advocates Fair Play but what we saw today was far from it.”
“We deserved to get something out of this game. We were strong in the second period and never appeared to be out of the game despite being down by two goals early.”
“We missed too many scoring goal opportunities and consequently paid the price.”
East Bengal came into the game in a wretched run of form but despite the loss, de Ridder was cheered by what he saw from his men. “Despite the defeat, I think I should be proud of this side,” he added.
“They fought so well. We may not have won three points, or even one, but I can take several positives from this team.”
Al Qadsia coach Mohammad Ibrahim missed the post match press conference with assistant coach Ahmed Dresti taking his place and he felt Al Qadsia were perfectly justified in their actions over the Al Motwa’s winning goal that thrust them back into contention in Group D.
“We simply snatched the ball and scored. It was all legitimate,” he claimed.
“We could not play as well as we would have liked in the second session. The conditions were testing here and the artificial turf too caused us some discomfort.”
“There were some stages where we could have even lost the match, but we are happy with the final outcome.”
“This win hands us a good opportunity to qualify for the knock-out stage of the competition.”
