Indian footballer Sandesh Jhingan, who has been out of action due to injury since the historic goalless draw against Qatar, has blamed the absence of VAR for Oman’s victory over India in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex Stadium in Muscat on Tuesday.
The centre-back tweeted a photo from the match where he pointed that Oman’s Mohsin Al Ghassani was in an offside position when he received the ball from Mohsin Johar Al-Khaldi in the 33rd minute, off which he eventually scored the only goal of the match.
How thats not an offside ? pic.twitter.com/f1Swa3tyMg
— Sandesh Jhingan (@SandeshJhingan) November 19, 2019
With the 1-0 defeat, India have been virtually knocked out from the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers. With only three points from five matches, they sit at fourth in the points table.
With only three matches to go, two at home and one away, the Igor Stimac-managed side can only hope to gather maximum points and at least qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2023, to be held in China.
The Blue Tigers had lost to Oman in the first-leg as well after leading 1-0 till the 80th minute in Guwahati in September. Following that, India travelled to Qatar and earned a hard-fought draw against the Asian Champions.
However, since that goalless match in Doha, Sunil Chhetri & Co have been the subject of a falling performance graph. Against two lower-ranked teams Bangladesh and Afghanistan, India managed 1-1 draw by scoring equalisers in the dying minutes after being completely outplayed in both the games.
India next play Qatar on March 26 next year before travelling to Bangladesh on June 4. The last outing of the Blues will be against Afghanistan at home on the ninth of June. The venues for the games have not yet been announced.