India coach Stephen Constantine stepped down Monday after an injury-time Bahrain penalty floored his side 1-0 and denied the cricket-mad nation a historic spot in the Asian Cup knockout stages.
India were moments away from reaching the knockout phase for the first time before Jamal Rashid converted a dramatic penalty in the 91st minute to shatter their dreams and sneak Bahrain through.
Constantine’s team were clinging on by the end, at one point packing all 11 players on their own goal line to defend an indirect free kick and then just as it looked like India would hold on for a famous point, Pronay Halder committed a rash foul and Rashed stepped up to smash the ball down the middle to knock India to the bottom of the Group A and out of the tournament.
It was heart-breaking but many on social media also thought that India brought this upon themselves.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the loss:
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