Antic: Referee cost Serbia second round spot
Reuters - Wednesday 23 June 2010, 21:46
NELSPRUIT - Serbia coach Radomir Antic
blamed the referee for Serbia's 2-1 World Cup Group D defeat by
Australia on Wednesday which cost his team a berth in the second
round of the tournament.
The Serbians had two efforts disallowed for offside and a
penalty claim waved away by Uruguayan Jorge Larrionda and Antic
said the officials had a "dark day."
"We had two goals disallowed and the first one was
definitely not offside and we were also denied a penalty for the
kind of handball that resulted in two penalties given against us
in the two previous matches," Antic told a news conference.
"This is not a dark day for Serbian soccer, it was the
referee and his assistants who had a dark day and their poor
decisions put us to the sword, albeit along with chances we
missed in the first half.
"We showed that we deserved to be in the World Cup and
football has not treated us fairly here because this game showed
that the better team doesn't always win.
"But we have to be completely honest and say that
Australia's first goal stunned us and we didn't recover until
very late in the game, when we could have rescued our bid to
reach the last 16.
Central defender Nemanja Vidic, who had a below-par
tournament, said the Serbians fell apart in the second half and
were left to rue their misses from the opening period.
"It is a very sombre atmosphere in the dressing room because
we played a very good first half, the best since beating Romania
5-0 in the qualifiers," Vidic told reporters.
"Australia were more aggressive in the second and we ran out
of steam after they started pounding us with long balls and
sharp crosses into our penalty box.
"We are very disappointed because we expected to reach the
knockout stage of the competition, especially after beating
Germany and giving ourselves a good chance of progressing."
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