Dudic pleads his innocence
21 Jun 2006 - 23:30:52
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- Dudic pleads his innocence
Serbia Montenegro defender Milan Dudic insisted Ivory Coast should not have been awarded their second penalty in Wednesday's thrilling Group C clash between the two sides.
The Elephants hit back from two goals down to win 3-2 but Dudic said the second penalty he conceded for handball was a mistake by the referee.
He said: "We played well in the first half and the second penalty was a very harsh decision because I was trying to get my hand out of the way and it certainly wasn't deliberate.
"In the end they won because we were reduced to 10 men for most of the match."
Coach Ilija Petkovic added: "Ivory Coast played an outstanding match tonight. They were unfortunate - with more luck they could have come second (in the group). Ivory Coast were superior to us.
"I'm glad we haven't been humiliated. I don't want to blame the referee for the defeat but some of the decisions definitely didn't go our way."
Ivory Coast coach Henri Michel said: "Of course, I'm satisfied as we finally won our first match but once again we had the same problems as in previous matches. Instead of letting in two goals in 20 minutes it was two goals in 10."