AmaZulu coach Pablo Franco Martin insinuated that his side was subjected to poor officiating after they suffered a cruel exit to Orlando Pirates in the quarterfinals of the Nedbank Cup on Saturday.
The Buccaneers scored twice in the last quarter of the game to win 4-2 in an action-packed encounter at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Hendrick Ekstein opened the scoring for the home side in the 30th minute before Patrick Maswanganyi equalised from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time.
Pirates regained the lead in the 58th minute through Kabelo Dlamini before Taariq Fielies equalised five minutes later.
Dlamini and Maswanganyi secured their doubles later on as Bucs sealed a second consecutive semifinal appearance in the competition.
Former AmaZulu captain Makhehleni Makhaula was adjudged to have been fouled by Fielies, resulting in the penalty scored by ‘Tito’.
The decision was the main discussion of the game as Martin believes the penalty was a poor judgment.
Speaking to SuperSport TV after the game, the irate Martin accused the referee of judging decisions in favor of Pirates.
“Do you want me to talk about football or what really decided this game? I’m asking you, football or what really decided this game? This is the problem we’re having here that the games are decided by some people who aren’t players.
“Again, a scandal, a huge scandal, we played against the best team in competitions and we reached the quarterfinals of the Nedbank Cup [for the first time] after 12 years. After 15 minutes where they dominated us, we balanced, we took the lead.
“We won the first half, even if the scoreboard says something different, we won it. And in the second half, it was an open game, nice game, nice fight, we got back to 2-2, we hit the crossbar, we could have won the game from there.
“But in the end with this score, it’s as if they won in a fair way and it’s not true, it’s something happening the whole season with AmaZulu, the results are decided by someone else, who thinks we don’t have family, that we don’t work very hard,” Martin told SuperSport TV.
Martin applauded his team’s disciplined and composed performance despite suffering injustices from the match officials.
“We could have received a red card, which was crazy, the normal thing is we could normally control ourselves but my team, after such a scandal, we came back into the pitch with controlled emotions.
“We played with discipline and quality and okay we didn’t get the result, when you play against these circumstances, it’s a pity but we’re now used to it, you know, we know what we can expect when we playing these kinds of opponents. It’s a shame for the country,” Martin added.
