Portugal have themselves
to blame for squandering a two-goal lead against Serbia in their World Cup
qualifier before a livid Cristiano Ronaldo was denied a clear winner in
stoppage time, forward Diogo Jota said.
اضافة اعلان
Saturday’s Group A match
in Belgrade ended in a 2-2 draw after Ronaldo’s stoppage-time effort crossed
the line before it was cleared by Serbia defender Stefan Mitrovic, who then
blocked a goal-bound follow up from Bernardo Silva.
A furious Ronaldo walked off
the pitch and threw the captain’s armband on to the turf seconds before Dutch
referee Danny Makkelie blew full time, having been booked for dissent after the
officials failed to award the goal. There was no VAR in place to review the
decision.
“What happened can’t
happen at this level because we switched off and let Serbia draw level 15
minutes into the second half,” said Liverpool forward Jota, whose brace had
given the Portuguese a 2-0 lead in the first half.
“It looked like the hard
part was done after a very good first half but Serbia changed their formation
at halftime, scored quickly and built on from there.
“We failed to kill the
game off and we can’t let that happen again in the future.”
Coach Fernando Santos
added:
“I warned my players at
halftime Serbia would make changes by switching to one up front in order to
boost the midfield and I have no explanation why we let them back into the
game.”
“But we regained control
after Serbia equalised and in the end we had a goal that didn’t count.”
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