Carlos Pena on FC Goa's defeat: Don't think the team lacked hunger

The Gaurs received a footballing lesson from the Islanders in a convincing defeat.

FC Goa suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Mumbai City at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai on Thursday. This was the fourth defeat from the first eight games of the Indian Super League (ISL 2022-23) season for the Gaurs. Carlos Pena’s men had nobody but themselves to blame for the defeat. Individual errors cost them the result in the end. Furthermore, their skipper Edu Bedia showed immaturity in picking up two yellow cards to be sent off during the game.

However, the tactician denied claims that FC Goa players were lacking hunger during the defeat while speaking to the media:

Failures of the second half

Carlos Pena believes his team did not play according to their potential in the second half. While analysing the game, he said, “In the second half, we started in a bad mood. We committed big mistakes, that against teams like this (Mumbai City) cause you goals. It was a problem. We talked in the dressing room to start the second half in the same way and keep on attacking because in the first half it was a very tight game with chances for both teams. But, in the second half, 10 minutes punished us a lot and after that, we could not come back in it.”

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Starting Alvaro Vazquez

Explaining his decision to play Alvaro Vazquez over Noah Sadaoui, the tactician said, “Because I decided to start with Alvaro. We decided to start the first half with Alvaro and Noah playing some minutes would help us. But, the plan of course, as you can see in the result, did not work.”

Time to analyse

The Spaniard believes that it is time to learn from the mistakes and prepare for the upcoming league game. He said, “Against Mumbai, even not having made mistakes you can concede goals, you (could) see in the first half. But, in the second half, big mistakes cost us two goals. It is time to analyse what happened to recover and prepare for the next game in the best condition.”

No lack of hunger

Refuting claims that FC Goa players were lacking hunger against Mumbai City, Carlos Pena said, “Lack of hunger? No, I disagree. I feel we lost the second half because we conceded two early goals. We committed big mistakes and that was the reason. I don’t feel that the team lacked hunger. We came here with the ambition and the hunger to win because we knew before the game, if we are to win here, we need to be at our best level. That 10 minutes cost us the game.”