Oscar Bruzon rues East Bengal's wasted chances in Odisha FC loss

The Red & Gold Brigade sunk to their sixth successive loss in the league.

East Bengal‘s losing run in the 2024-25 Indian Super League (ISL) continued with a crushing 2-1 loss to Odisha FC at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar on Tuesday (22 October). Roy Krishna and Mourtada Fall scored for the hosts and Dimitrios Diamantakos’ penalty was not enough to salvage a point for the Red & Gold Brigade.

East Bengal actually begun the game in blistering fashion and had 3-4 big scoring chances within the first 15 minutes. But poor execution and decision-making cost them. Despite having 18 shot attempts, they Torchbearers’ only goal in the game came from a penalty.

Oscar Bruzon on East Bengal’s missed opportunities and lapses

Oscar Bruzon couldn’t really do much apart from rue the wasted opportunities that haunted his side against Odisha FC, as he stated: “We had a great start to the game, creating most of the chances and making Odisha having a lot of difficulties. Their forwards couldn’t connect 3-4 passes so they just waited for our mistakes for counter-attacks. Unfortunately, in one counter, Krishna was smart enough to find the gap between our left-back and centre-back in the high defence and capitalize.

“In football, when you forgive your rivals for 10-15 chances, they will terrorize you and that is what happened today. We made a big effort today, we tried to stop them in set-pieces and it was difficult for me to accept what happened on the pitch. But credit to Odisha, they clicked in the key moments of the game. For us, it was like fighting against a wall every time. We are not having freshness mentally that we will not have 100 chances in a game. We need to convert, especially when we are the better side. (Unfortunately) when we were better, we didn’t convert.”

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“The game was totally ours, it’s a pity that we missed so many chances. It was difficult as they scored the opener as they swung the tempo of the game. It was much more difficult for us because of our high-pressing style. I’ve analysed a lot of mistakes we’ve made in recent games, but on a positive note after the game, a lot of the guys and coaching staff told me ‘This is the way’. I want everyone to have a little bit of faith and patience because things will turn around at some point and at that point we need to capitalize and get the positive results,” he also added.

East Bengal will now head to Bhutan to play in the group stages of the AFC Challenge League. They will face off against Paro FC on 26 October.

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