Have been in football for 40 years, never seen this: Bengaluru FC coach on Kerala Blasters

Bengaluru FC manager Simon Grayson opened up after a controversial Sunil Chhetri free-kick helped his team to tame down Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League knockout fixture. In the aftermath of the freekick, Kerala coach Ivan Vukamunovic called up his players and walked off forfeiting the match. Bengaluru will now take on Mumbai City in the ISL semifinal.

As Bengaluru FC was awarded a free-kick the Kerala Blasters players were busy forming the wall. Sunil Chhetri was brought down and the referee had awarded a freekick to the home side. Chhetri took this opportunity and curled a freekick but as the referee hadn't blown the whistle Kerala players didn't have the time to respond. The match officials didn't find any wrongdoings and courtesy of that winner the Southern giants will face Mumbai City in the semifinal.

Coach Simon Grayson feels that's not the correct way to end the game and he has never seen such things before in his career! 👀#BFCKBFC #ISL #IndianFootball #IFTWC pic.twitter.com/NCPnfZ4PBI

— IFTWC - Indian Football (@IFTWC) March 3, 2023

Simon Grayson responded following Sunil Chhetri's controversial goal

The Bengaluru FC coach insisted Sunil waited for Luna to get out of the way and only then he executed the shot. 

"It's not the way that we wanted to get through to the semi-final, it obviously tings with all the controversy and we all know what happened. We got the free-kick and Sunil (Chhetri) said he didn't want the wall, he didn't need ten yards, and the referee said no problem. Sunil waited for (Adrian) Luna to get out of the way and then put it in the top corner."

The manager went on to add that his side deserved to win that game. "Our performance warranted the win, especially the first half we were full of energy. We had good quality, we created some really good opportunities and limited them to very few opportunities. We kept their really good players quiet and the shape was good news and we knew how to deal with certain aspects of their team. We did look at a major threat so when you look at the overall game, I thought we deserved to win the game. Full credit to the players."