Blues striker Ali Al-Hamadi has issued an apology for his red card while playing for Iraq in last night’s 2-0 defeat to South Korea in Basra, a dismissal the 23-year-old admits was “extremely painful”.
Al-Hamadi was given his marching orders in the 25th minute following a VAR review after catching Cho Yu-min with an inadvertent high boot having initially been shown a yellow card.
"What happened was extremely painful,” Al-Hamadi wrote on social media. "Words are not enough to describe how I have been feeling since yesterday until now. I apologise to everyone without exception, especially the loyal Iraqi audience.
"At the same time, I can tell you with confidence. We will make up for it in the two play-off matches and together we will celebrate qualifying for the World Cup next October.”
Iraq, for whom Al-Hamadi was making his 15th appearance and first since October last year, can no longer qualify automatically from the group, the South Koreans and Jordan, who will be at the finals for the first time, having finished first and second respectively.
They are confirmed in the fourth round of qualifying, however, when they will play in one of two groups of three for a place in the finals.
https://x.com/IraqFootballPod/status/1930701561199575169
https://x.com/alikalhamadi/status/1931000132507455771