We lacked intensity in first half, laments FC Goa head coach Carlos Pena

The Gaurs faltered in front of the Red Miners in an eight-goal thriller.

Carlos Pena's FC Goa fell to a 5-3 defeat against Jamshedpur FC at the EMS Stadium in the Hero Indian Super Cup 2023 on Monday. The Gaurs raced into the lead as Noah Sadaoui flashed home a well-placed finish into the back of the Men of Steel’s net. It took Aidy Boothroyd’s boys just as many minutes to equalise through Pratik Chowdhary. After setting up the equaliser, Rafael Crivellaro decided to have a go and score an outstanding free-kick. Pronay Halder then stepped up and finished off an attack with a tap-in. 

After the break, the Red Miners continued their onslaught as Ritwik Das wreaked havoc from the left flank, went past Redeem Tlang and teed up Crivellaro. Noah and Iker Guarrotxena scored one apiece to give the Goan outfit hope. But substitute Harrison Sawyer snatched away all of the same with his scrappy finish. With no points and a negative goal difference for his side, Carlos Pena sat down to answer the media in the post-match press conference.

On enduring a difficult game 

Although FC Goa fought back and went down in a spirited manner, their tactician was disheartened, to say the least. When asked to give us his thoughts on the entire game, Carlos Pena lamented: 

“Well, my thoughts are that I haven’t played with the attention, intensity and commitment required of us at this stage. We lacked intensity in the first half wherein we lost all challenges and duels. In this kind of competition, you cannot compete with anyone with that sort of performance ”

On the positives he accumulated from the game

Noah Sadaoui scored twice and looked to play on the front foot while Iker Guarrotxena kept up his impressive form for the season. Carlos Pena was definitely not impressed with either feat, however. Speaking about other positives he gathered from this match, the mentor replied: 

“I cannot think of any positives (to take away) from this game. When you concede five goals, there is nothing positive to talk about left anymore. I’m very disappointed and upset. I understand the state of the club right now and the importance of this tournament. But we need to be professional in the end.”

On how they can improve their gameplay

Goa conceded quite a few soft and scrappy goals and their defence looked to be porous to a great extent. Carlos Pena's team has a mountain to climb in the next match and he accordingly said:

“We have to improve defensively and offensively. I think football is about attack and defence and today we finished some chances but our defending was not up to the mark. ”

On Dheeraj Singh and Anwar Ali’s absence affecting the final result

Two of FC Goa’s starting members, goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh and starlet centre-back Anwar Ali were absent from the matchday squad. The manager called on his team to start performing and said no single missing player was the reason as he concluded:

 “No no it was not a missing player that caused us all the trouble today and Dheeraj could not make it to the Super Cup squad as he is down with a fever. So it is about something collective and not individual-based that is the issue.”