Brazil's coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari has defended the penalty that was awarded to Brazil against Croatia in the opening match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
"I watched it ten times and, for me, it was a penalty", Brazil's manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, said today in defence of the ball that enabled the five-time champions to break their draw with Croatia and secure a win in the 2014 World Cup opener.
Scolari disagreed with the claim made by Croatia coach, Niko Kovac, who said that "two billion people saw that it was not a penalty", in relation to the incident in which Fred went down in the area, putting Brazil ahead on the scoreboard.
"Millions didn't see the penalty, the referee did. He is the one who decides», Scolari said following the 3-1 victory over Croatia at the Arena Sao Paulo stadium in the first Group A tie, with two goals delivered by Neymar and another by Oscar.
For Scolari, Japanese referee, Yuichi Nishimuri got it right: "I watched it back ten times after the game and, for me, it was a penalty".
He also answered the Croatian coach's comments regarding refereeing issues having the potential to turn the tournament into a "circus", wryly saying that "Brazil has won five world circuses then" and without the likes of Pelé, Garrincha, Tostao, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment