Aduana Stars midfielder, Elvis Opoku, claims poor officiating accounted for their defeat against ES Setif in the CAF Champions League.
The Ghanaian championships crashed out of the elite continental inter-club championship 4-1 on aggregate due to a slim 1-0 home win in the first leg.
However, Opoku believes that poor officiating cost his side at the Stade Mai 8 1945 last Sunday.
“Officiating was terrible, if you look at their first two goals, one was offside and the other was a hand ball and they frustrated us, throwing their fists and a what not but the referee will not caution them because after 20 minutes we were on top and if the referee did not help them they would have been in trouble but we will take all this in good fate”, he told reporters after the game.
He explained that they were terrified by the attitudes of their opponents, insisting the North Africans frustrated them and communicated more with the referee as they had issues with language barrier.
“They inspired fear in us, and they kept terrifying us so there was a lot of fear on the pitch. Before they even scored the first goal our player was on the pitch but they rushed to the referee putting some fear in him”, he said of their ordeal.
“At a point I had to withdraw for us to be able to control a bit of the game. This is something peculiar with the Arabs and Setif, if you are strong enough you can’t stand them and this contributed to our defeat”.
“The referee spoke French and even though he understood English he won’t communicate with us and spoke only with them (Setif) in French”, Opoku added.
Elvis Opoku blames poor officiating for Champions League exit
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