Jorge Costa demands more intensity from team, Sergio Lobera flattered by national team interest

The Islanders again looked clueless against the Gaurs in the first half of the game, much like the teams' last encounter.

Mumbai City FC was defeated at their own backyard by FC Goa in an Indian Super League (ISL) fixture on Friday evening. Edu Bedia opened the scoring through a terrific team move in the first half. FC Goa didn’t let the intensity of their game drop until the first half finished. Mumbai City tried to recover in the second half, but a Ferran Corominas penalty ended all the hopes for the Islanders.

The win gives the Goan side all six points from the two games played this season between them. The two coaches met for the post-match press conference after the game.

The loss halts the unbeaten streak for the Islanders and took away all of their chances of getting the revenge. In fact, the bookings, the possible niggle for Rafael Bastos means it's added more insult to the Mumbai's injury.

When questioned what went wrong for them, Jorge Costa answered, "First, the result, second, the first half. Whatever happened, it was nothing like my team."

Mumbai City was a rejuvenated side in the second half. The performances in the two halves put contrast pictures. Mumbai players were more active, covered more distances, and left lesser spaces for the opponent midfielders, closing on to them as much as possible while defending. Jorge Costa was asked how did he make the turnaround, at least, in the performance possible.

He replied, "I asked them to watch what went wrong throughout the first half. I asked them to press harder, and try to win the game."

The last time Goa and Mumbai met in the Indian Super League, Mumbai City had a horrendous performance in the second half. The players didn't seem to learn anything from that game, after another abysmal outing against the Gaurs. Jorge believes that seriousness has been the issue.

He said, "We needed to be more serious. Every day, every second, we need to be serious."

Mohammad Nawaz was the pick of the players for FC Goa. He made three crucial saves to keep a clean sheet for the second game running. Sergio Lobera has shown his trust in his young goalkeeper, playing him ahead of a veteran in Laxmikant Kattimani. And the youngster has already started paying off for the coach's faith.

Lobera explained the rationale behind picking Nawaz ahead of Kattimani at the beginning of the season saying, "Sometimes you have to take some risks and give opportunities to young players. That is how players develop to become big stars."

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Sergio Lobera has maintained the fact that his side will always look to score when given the opportunities. He would trade all his side's clean sheets for better goalscoring records. And the former Blaugrana assistant coach explained why so.

He explained, "I'm not concerned about clean sheets, I only think about the goal difference. When two teams end up with the same points, one with better goal difference qualifies."

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With his brand of football, Sergio Lobera has left a huge impact on the Indian football fans, and if rumours are to be believed, on the AIFF as well. He's considered as one of the candidates who might be the head coach of the national team.

When asked if he was interested to take the duties of the Indian national football coach, he answered, "I'm really grateful that people are enjoying my football. But I haven't heard anything about it yet. I have been here for two years, and the quality keeps improving each year."