ISL 2025-26: Sergio Lobera lauds Mohun Bagan SG's fighting spirit after thrilling comeback win over Mohammedan SC

Mohun Bagan SG get on top of the ISL table

Sergio Lobera’s Mohun Bagan SG won their third straight match in the 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) campaign with a 5-1 thrashing of Mohammedan SC in the mini-Kolkata derby at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday, 28 February (2026).

Despite falling behind early on, the Mariners roared back with five unanswered goals – thanks to a Robson Robinho brace and goals from Jamie Maclaren, Dimitri Petratos and Manvir Singh!

Sergio Lobera was buoyant with his side’s performance in the win, as he stated after the game: “I’m happy with the way we played today and the result. The only thing I feel we need to improve is that we cannot start matches by conceding the opening goal like that. We scored five goals, but we had chances to score even more. It was a good result, and we’re top of the table, and hopefully we can maintain this rhythm until the end of the season – that is the ultimate target.”

Successful rotation of players

Lobera was also delighted with how his rotations worked out, as he explained: “I feel like this was the best starting XI to play today’s match. The players who got the opportunity to start and didn’t start before proved everyone that they’re ready. I’m really satisfied with the performance of the players; Jason Cummings played a lot of minutes today and played really well.”

“That is the most important thing for me, that everyone is ready. If you want to win trophies, you need an entire squad and if you want to win games you need 11 players. It’s important that the players are ready to play games. I cannot put a player without feeling that they can help us win the game,” he added.

Turning point of the game

When asked about what he felt was the turning point of the game for the Mariners, the Spaniard responded: “I’m really happy with the reaction of my players after conceding the goal. Sometimes when the team concedes a goal against an opponent like Mohammedan, you try to rush to goals, but we didn’t do that.”

“The team kept calm, played loyal in our style of play and with very good teamwork scored goals. When the team is working well, the individuals can shine and today the action of the full backs was really important today,” he also quipped.

Thoughts on Odisha FC challenge

With Mohun Bagan SG set to play their first away game of the 2025-26 ISL against Odisha FC, Lobera’s former side, the Spanish gaffer was asked about his feelings for the game.

He answered: “It’s a special game for me. I’m coming from there and I have very good memories there. When you play for a good team, I feel they’ll make for a special game. More than my personal feelings, it’s more important to prepare the team for the best way as possible and we will work on that.”

“Every game brings a difficult challenge as every team brings the tool. Odisha played so well to get a point in the last game after just 4-5 training sessions. We believe it’ll be a difficult game, but we need to look to win every games. We need to think about ourselves, hope we can improve and deal with all the challenges we have ahead,” he finished with.

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