Al Ain: Vahid Halilhodzic, the Japan coach, is hopeful that Thursday night’s World Cup qualifier with the UAE in Al Ain will not be blighted by “bad refereeing” following a terrible blunder in the corresponding fixture last September.
The Japanese were denied a late equaliser in their 2-1 defeat to the UAE in Saitama, despite television replays clearly showing that goalkeeper Khalid Eissa clawed away substitute Takuma Asano’s shot from behind the line.
This controversial decision provoked a formal protest from the Japanese Football Federation, to no avail, and Halilhodzic was visibly still riled when asked about it by media on Wednesday.
Commenting on the appointment of Uzbekistani referee Ravshan Irmatov for the match at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, the former Paris Saint-Germain and Al Ittihad coach said: “I will want to avoid bad refereeing. Is that understood?
“I don’t like to speak so much about referees, but I will want to trust this referee. We are concentrating to play this great UAE team, that has high qualities. I hope we will have the correct refereeing that this World Cup qualifier deserves.”
Japan will be without injured skipper and Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Makoto Hasebe, who will also miss next week’s home game with Thailand, much to Halilhodzic‘s chagrin.
He said: “Hasebe is a very strong captain for us. Having a team without him in it is unthinkable.”
Hasebe has won 104 caps for Japan and played at both the 2010 and the 2014 World Cup finals.
