Fair enough that we missed the penalty, says Sabir Pasha

Pune's Adil Khan seemed to have made a regulation shoulder tackle on Chennaiyin forward Gregory Nelson, but the referee thought otherwise and awarded a rather harsh penalty.

Vishal Kaith of FCPC saves a penalty from Rene Mihelic of CFC.

A controversial penalty was the talk of the town after Chennaiyin FC's 1-0 win over FC Pune City and the home team's assistant coach, Sabir Pasha, felt it was only fair that his side ended up missing the spot-kick.

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Pune's Adil Khan seemed to have made a regulation shoulder tackle on Chennaiyin forward Gregory Nelson, but the referee thought otherwise and awarded a rather harsh penalty. “They gave us one (a penalty) and we missed it, so it was fair enough,” said Pasha post the match. 

Pasha noted that the side's defence had done really well to curb Pune's ferocious attack and earn itself a hard-fought win. “We deserved the win in the second half. They're a strong attacking side but we defended really well in the first half. We attacked well in the second half and a goal was in the offing, while they didn't attack well and that worked for us.”

“We are a strong defending side and are getting goals too and that's important,” he concluded. 

Pune City's assistant coach Vladica Grujic wasn't pleased with the officiating of the tie, to say the least. “The whole team played a solid game but I'm very sad with this result because we played well. We lost today's game but we did not lose to a better team,” lamented the Serbian.