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India and Kuwait played a 1-1 draw at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru after a chaotic 90 minutes in the SAFF Championship 2023. The second half was full of drama, which ended in favour of Kuwait. India got the lead during the later stages of the first half courtesy of Sunil Chhetri who claimed his 92nd goal. Igor Stimac received his second red card in the tournament and he had to leave the field again. Alqallaf and Rahim Ali both saw the red card and then Kuwait found their equaliser from the own goal of Anwar Ali. Indian assistant coach Mahesh Gawli blamed the refereeing for the Igor Stimac red card incident in the post-match conference.
SAFF Championship 2023: Mahesh Gawli criticized the refereeing during the post-match conference
The match saw the officials flashing red cards three times as India coach Igor Stimac, Indian player Rahim Ali and Kuwait's Hamad were sent off. In fact, it was Stimac's second red card in three matches as he had received a similar treatment in the game against Pakistan last week.
"The refereeing was poor and the SAFF has to think about the quality of the officials or the tournament will suffer. Our coach (Stimac) was faultless and the referee could not control the match. Our team was brilliant and Kuwait was very rough," said Gawli in the post-match press conference.
"I could not hear anything but he did not say anything bad or any bad words to the referee. He was just having a conversation with the players and the referee. Even the first yellow card was totally unnecessary," said Gawli.
"Anwar was brilliant and was very confident. He had an excellent game," said Gawli, who also praised captain Sunil Chhetri for scoring a marvelous goal in the first half to put India ahead. Igor Stimac will miss the Semi-Final against Lebanon which could be a turning point in the tournament.