MARGAO: FC Goa’s Marquee Manager-cum-Coach Zico was left furious with the officiating referee that saw his side settle for a 1-1 draw against FC Pune City.
FC Pune City midfielder Didier Zakora came up with a dangerous tackle from behind on FC Goa’s Leo Moura which looked intentional and to make it worse, the skipper got away without a booking. Instead, match referee Pratap Singh flashed a yellow card each for Kalu Uche and Eugeneson Lyngdoh for retaliation.
“All the other players got a yellow card but Zakora got away without a booking. The refereeing is all the time against us which makes it difficult. I don’t want help from referees but I only want justice,” said a furious Zico at the post match conference.
Zico was also dissatisfied with the officiating referee during their tie against Atletico de Kolkata for which he had been warned by the organizers. The tactician further reasoned out instances in the previous matches that went against his team and said, “If it goes on like this I can go home.”
“In the previous match (against Mumbai) they broke Darryl Duffy’s leg and today it could have been another player. I don’t want they do this to FC Goa,” Zico added.
The Scottish striker has been already ruled out of the tournament with a hairline fracture.
Commenting on the rued opportunities his team missed in the first session, Zico felt that his team played in this kind of a formation for the first time and did well.
“I am very happy with the boys. This is the first time they played in this formation although we could not fulfil our goal. We had six clear chances and we could not score. They (Pune) had few opportunities but they scored. But if not for refereeing it could have been different,” said Zico.
The FC Goa tactician did agree to the fact that their rivals had a stronger bench strength that made the difference as Jackichand Singh and Wesley Verhoek changed the complexion of the game after coming on as second half substitutes for the visitors.
