Football staff goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. File| Photo Credit: Ok. Murali Kumar

Indian soccer staff captain Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was important of the second penalty awarded to Iraq after his facet's heartbreaking 4-5 defeat in shootout within the King's Cup semifinal right here.

The Indians conceded a late aim off a debatable penalty to on Thursday miss out on their first-ever victory over Iraq.

The Blue Tigers have been main 2-1 until the 79th minute when the referee awarded a mushy penalty to Iraq after their striker Ghadhban was squeezed by two defenders contained in the field throughout a tussle to get on to a excessive cross.

It didn't appear like a particular penalty, however Ghadhban himself stepped as much as take the kick from the spot and make it 2-2, taking the sport to the penalty shootout.

Sandhu advised the AIFF, "Obviously, it's a hard result to digest. I think we could've won the game. Unfortunately, the second penalty which was awarded was questionable." However, he expressed his satisfaction with the general efficiency of the staff regardless of the absence of veteran striker Sunil Chhetri.

"But again, we did much, much better than what I think people would have thought. And we just need to believe in ourselves. We have to be a bit more patient and positive, which we were.

"We must be humble and likewise make it possible for we do not give away probabilities the way in which we did. Unfortunately, Iraq received their probabilities to come back again and win the sport," he added.

"We simply want to ensure if we need to be a kind of huge groups, we do not give away alternatives even when it seems prefer it's one thing out of our management.

"We need to make sure that we don't give any chances whatsoever to other teams if we want to be in those high numbers in Asia or in the world.

"We have to construct on this efficiency as a result of now we have one other sport arising. We have to make it possible for we relaxation properly, eat properly, and prepare for that." The failure ended India's unbeaten streak of 12 games. However, Sandhu expressed his confidence in his team and and said the players need to believe in themselves.

"Most of the boys on this bunch have performed collectively for a very long time. They are maturing on the proper age, peaking on the proper time.

"The sky's the limit for us. We just need to believe in ourselves as a team." "We are working day in and day out to make sure that we, as a team, keep on pushing our limits, break the barriers and move forward in Asia because that's where we want to be," he signed off.

India will tackle Lebanon within the bronze-medal playoff, which shall be adopted by the title conflict between Iraq and Thailand on Sunday.