Carlos Pena: We want to get all three points on Thursday

The Gaurs gave it their all but were let down by a leaky defence on a tough day.

FC Goa lost 5-3 to Mumbai City as the latter won the ISL 2022/23 league winners’ shield at the Fatorda Stadium on Saturday. Noah Sadaoui, Brandon and Brison Fernandes all scored for Carlos Pena's men, but the Islanders posed a greater attacking threat. Greg Stewart ripped apart the defense with two of his strikes.

Jorge Pereyra Diaz, Lallianzuala Chhangte, and Vikram Pratap Singh joined in to make it a 5-3 scoreline. Des Buckingham celebrated with his side jubilantly after the full-time whistle but the scene was quite the opposite in Carlos Pena’s dugout. The head coach attended the post-match press conference and responded to the media's questions.

On Mumbai City FC’s performance and the game as a whole

Despite the indomitable brilliance of the Islanders, the Gaurs never gave up. Brison’s goal in the later stages was testimony to their undying spirit. Carlos Pena summarised the game in a succinct manner, “My summary of the game is that today we tried. We created enough chances to get at least a point against a very good team. But with these kinds of teams, they are going to punish the smallest of mistakes you make.

"In the first half, they didn’t get too many chances but they took the three they had and scored three goals. We had even more. But they maintained a very good level and you can’t really commit any mistake against them. You need to have a perfect game in defence which was obviously not possible today. Now, we don’t have time to think about that as we have a very important game on Thursday. It’s another final for us. We want to get all three points because we only depend on ourselves. So we will focus on the upcoming game after we recover from today’s match.”

On learnings from this match that can be utilised in the next

Mumbai City were simply outstanding for any team and Goa were just another piece in the domino effect their form has had. Today’s game yielded a good amount of thought in Carlos Pena's head, “I think the opponent will be absolutely different in the next match. Mumbai are the best team with the most quality players in the league. So yeah I think we faced them with ambition and tried our best to beat them.

"But they were clinical in front of goal and most of the chances they had, they scored. So congratulations to them on winning the shield but we will move on to focusing towards the next game.”

On not being able to keep a clean sheet 

FC Goa have struggled to get a clean sheet in the last nine games. The defence has undoubtedly been leaky but despite his own claims about wanting to defend better the tactician spoke otherwise. Carlos Pena emphasized points over clean sheets and concluded, “No, I want to win points and not clean sheets. They scored twice through free kicks then we committed a mistake in the second one(goal) because of mispositioning. Our transition in the second half resulted in the fourth and the fifth goals.

"So yes it’s time to analyze because we can’t concede five goals at home against any team. But we will try to learn and move on in the next one.”