Josep Gombau plays down importance of table position this early into the season

Odisha FC have now won consecutive matches at the Kalinga Stadium.

Odisha FC carved out a hard-fought win at the Kalinga Stadium against Bengaluru FC. They won by a slender goal scored by Nandha Kumar Sekar. It was the Josep Gombau-coached side's second consecutive win at home this season. Odisha's defence was rock solid and was able to absorb everything that Bengaluru FC threw without conceding.

With this win, Odisha FC climbed to the top of the points table, playing one more game than the second-positioned Hyderabad, who are two points behind. Following the win, head coach Josep Gombau attended the post-match press conference. The following are some of the excerpts from the conference.

Good start to the season and getting to the top of the table

The Spaniard opined that getting and staying on top of the table is very important for his team. However, he also said that he does not want his team to take unnecessary pressure for doing the same. He said, "It is very important (to start a season well). If you start a season well it brings you more confidence. You are not under pressure and the players believe that everything is working well."

He further added, "For us, being on top of the table is very important. We want to be there till the end of the season. However, it is not fixed. Today we are on top of the table, but tomorrow we may not be on top. (Hence) It is not our objective now. Our aim is to go game by game. We will try to do well in every game and be in a good position at the end of the season."

Positive takeaways from the game

He talked about the positive takeaways in reply to a question enquiring about the same. Josep Gombau said, "It was their (Odisha FC's) spirit of working, planning, and fighting for the second balls. It was a very difficult game for us. Still, I believe we were comfortable with the ball. Bengaluru pressed strongly and we had to adapt. But we were strong. We put in a lot of challenges and won second balls. This was not easy. We created two chances in the first half and got the goal. In the second half, we had a couple of chances. If you see the chances that we created and all the other things, we were the better side."

His message to his players at half-time

Asked what he said to his players at half-time, Gombau replied that he said to the team to carry on their momentum for another 45 minutes. "I said it is just 45 minutes (over), and 45 more is to come. We are leading but we need to be strong, especially in winning second balls and challenges. I also said them to keep working hard. I tried to make the players understand that we need each of them to give their 120%. With the quality of our squad, together we can do good things."

Decision to substitute Diego Mauricio early in the second half

Josep Gombau explained why he subbed off Diego Mauricio in the 54th minute to bring on Pedro Martin. He said, "Pedro did very well in the last game. This was a very physical game. We replaced a striker with a striker because it was very important for us that the striker is the first defender. It is the striker, who should start pressing. I saw that Diego was struggling. For the 54 minutes, he was running a lot. When you have a player like Pedro on the bench, why not replace him then?"

Gombau added, "He (Pedro) scored the winning goal in the last game. I think we have two very good strikers, who may play together depending on the situation. If we are losing or we need to change a game, both of them may play together. When you know two of your top players are training well, you need to give both of them game time."

Thoughts on Nandhakumar Sekar

The head coach expressed his opinion on Nandha Kumar in the press conference. He stated, "I like Nandha. As is obvious, every player needs to improve. He is working very hard (in that regard). We notice him in attacks. But, he also helps in defence. He runs a lot. He is one of the players who has more kilometres at the end of a game, which we can see in their GPS machines. I am so happy that today he scored his goal. It is good. His goal is an important goal because it got us three points."

Feelings about playing at home

The Odisha FC tactician also shared his feelings about playing at the Kalinga Stadium. He then emphasised getting positive results from most of their home games. He said, "For us, it is important to play here at home. We feel at home here as we have the supporters. They give us the extra power that we need. We were happy the last time we played here in the 2019-20 season as we had good results here. We will work hard to keep having good results from our home games."

Getting revenge over Bengaluru FC for Durand Cup exit

Josep Gombau had previously spoken about how Bengaluru FC beating them in the Durand Cup quarter-final in the 120th minute pains him. He had also said in the pre-match press conference that they want to take revenge for that defeat. After Odisha's win, the head coach followed up on that.

He said that it was good to get their revenge. At the same time, he stated that he approached the game in a similar manner to which he approaches other games.

He said, "At the end of our Durand Cup match with Bengaluru, I said to the players that when we play them in the league (ISL), we should have similar enthusiasm to beat them. We spoke before the game about it (Durand Cup quarter-final) because we were very upset at that moment.

"Today, I said to the players that now you have this moment to win and to take all the three points. So, we won today. But every game is different. We approached today's game in the same manner which we are going to approach the next games that we will play."