Referee error led to loss against Sailiya: Sadd coach Ferreira

Al Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira blamed the assistant referee after his side dropped two points in their QNB Stars League match against Al Sailiya in a 1-1 draw on Sunday. Tournament top scorer Baghdad Bounedjah netted Sadd’s goal in the 66th minute of the fast-paced game, where Sailiya put up a stiff resistance against their fancied opponents. Sailiya drew parity when Abdulqadir Ilyas converted from the penalty spot in the 88th minute. Al Sadd thus lost the leaders’ position to Al Duhail, who have 19 points, two more than The Wolves. Ferreira said: “As I said before the game, this was going to be tough for us, especially after the defeat in the Champions League. Sadd lost the three points because of a wrong penalty decision.”“I won’t blame the referee but the linesman made a mistake. Unfortunately, these mistakes have happened in many Sadd matches and I wasn’t surprised by the wrong penalty call. When this person officiates either as the main referee or as a linesman, Sadd haven’t been lucky.”Ferreira continued his rant against the referee, saying: “Throughout the time I have been in Doha, I haven’t been lucky with this referee around. I don’t think he has anything against us but I don’t know why we haven’t been lucky when he is officiating. Refereeing errors denied Al Sadd the win today and also a draw against Persepolis because there was a penalty on Bounedjah that was not given.”As for his players’ performance against Sailiya, Ferreira said: “My team needs to be quicker in scoring goals. Unfortunately, it did not happen and we found ourselves under pressure from Sailiya, making things difficult for the team. Sadd was not at full strength but Sailiya were a strong team. Also, there was a lot of fatigue because of the Persepolis game. We promise the fans that things will be different in the upcoming games.”Meanwhile, Al Duhail Coach Nabil Maaloul expressed his happiness after the win over Umm Salal. “I am very happy with the victory and the performance of the players. The changes that happened in the team’s list because of injuries of the players, showed the real strength of Al Duhail as every player was able to enter the main list and perform very well”Nam Tae-Hee (13th minute) and Almoez Ali (90+3) scored the goals for the hosts who took their points to 19. In the process, they registered their sixth victory. The only occasion they dropped points was when they were held by Al Rayyan. Al Duhail dominated possession (57 per cent). Naturally, they forced more corner kicks (seven as against Umm Salal’s three).Al Duhail created more chances throughout. Umm Salal showed more alacrity in the second half during which they were unlucky not to have scored a goal that would have helped them pull off a draw and a valuable point as the rivals struck a second time at the fag end of the game.