Ghana's 2010 World Cup coach suffers another penalty shootout loss

Lightning struck twice for Thailand head coach Milovan Rajevac as he witnessed his team suffer a penalty heartbreak after doing the same with Ghana at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Thailand were ousted from the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 when Adisak Kraisorn missed a penalty in the dying seconds to give Malaysia a 2-2 aggregate win on away goals.

Adisak fluffed his spot-kick into the crowd despite goalkeeper Farizal Marlias already committing to the left of goal and the Muangthong United striker sank to the ground in despair.

While the whole of Thai football were still coming to terms with their shock loss to Harimau Malaya, War Elephants head coach Rajevac must have felt a sense of déjà vu.

The Serbian tactician was Ghana’s manager at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and with his team tied at 1-1 in extra-time with Uruguay, the unthinkable happened.

With the game heading for the dreaded penalty shootout, Dominic Adiyiah had a header destined for goal, until Uruguay striker Luis Suarez used his hands to stop the ball from going in.

The striker was sent off and Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the spot-kick. To Rajevac’s horror, his star man blasted his shot against the crossbar.

Ghana went on to lose 4-2 in the shootout and the Black Stars exited the tournament on a painful note.

The same feelings of anguish must have hit Rajevac once again on Wednesday night when Adisak’s spot-kick went into the stands.

The only encourage that the Serb can take from this is the age-old saying which reads, third time’s a charm.

Malaysia will go on to face either Vietnam or the Philippines in the final. The two nations will slug it out at the My Dinh Stadium on Thursday night with the Golden Dragons holding a 2-1 advantage from the first leg in Bacolod.

Source: Foxsportsasia