On Saturday in Brazil, the World Cup ended for the debutant Bosnia and Herzegovina. The fault lies not only with the better-playing Nigeria, but also with a fatal mistake by the referee from New Zealand. The referee did not count Edin Džeko's goal, which would have put the Bosnians ahead. After the match, the footballer did not hide his anger.
Peter Odemwingie scored a winning goal in the first half (29th minute). However, Edin Džeko scored a goal in the 21st minute, but the referee decided to disallow it, although a clear replay showed that it was not offside.
The match was officiated by Peter O'Leary from New Zealand, for whom it was a debut as the main referee in the tournament.
After the match, Edin Džeko said that the referee should go home: "Today we had to win. The referee did his job disgracefully. We are going home and we are very sad about it, but the truth is, the referee should go home. He changed the result and the course of the match. That's why we lost."
Bosnia also emphasized that Emmanuel Emenike committed a foul against Emir Spahić before Nigeria's goal, but the referee ignored this episode: "We tried to recover after the missed goal. However, it was clearly a foul against our captain. And when I scored a goal, there was definitely no offside. We fought to the end, but luck was not on our side."
Bosnia and Herzegovina coach Safet Sušić: "It's sad that this talented generation ended the championship so quickly. But you can't blame them. One goal determined the end of the match. Congratulations to Nigeria, who played very well and deserved the win. They played much better than in the match against Iran. They were also more fortunate, so they won. The match unfolded as I imagined. It was open football. We had many opportunities, but we didn't capitalize on them, and they had one and immediately used it. Nigeria surprised us. They were better."
The coach agreed with E. Džeko regarding the referee's mistake: "I was told it was offside, but I didn't see it. This is not the first referee mistake in this championship."
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