Oscar Bruzon defends Dimitrios Diamantakos display and praises backline in sturdy draw against Mumbai City

East Bengal sit at the 10th spot in the ISL table.

Oscar Bruzon’s East Bengal played out a fighting 0-0 draw against Mumbai City in their Indian Super League (ISL) clash at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday (31 January). Neither side were able to get one over the other to score the decisive winner in the game, with both teams having to split points after an eventful game.

Even though Dimitrios Diamantakos had a few big chances to score for the Red & Gold Brigade, Oscar Bruzon refused to blame his misses for his side failing to win the game. After the result, he claimed: “He struck the post. He was very close to scoring today. Sometimes strikers are going through runs of scoring not scoring, Dimi is one today.

“He hit the post today and couldn’t convert. He had a good supply, with Richard Celis on the left, PV Vishnu to the right and even David Lalhlansanga in central, Mahesh Singh analysed all our attacks. Dimi is a box player, he has to be there to change the line and get a good line of goals,” he also added.

Even though East Bengal failed to score a goal in the game, Bruzon was impressed by how sturdy his side were defensively. Speaking about his team’s defensive sturdiness, the gaffer stated: “We missed three foreigners today and we were not in our full strengths, we were going through a very difficult moment. The only point we have is that today the depth of our squad is that Mumbai had little chances to win the game and today we had limitations to change the game in the second half.

“Today, we played one of the best first half of the season but we couldn’t get the goals to save ourselves and be solid for the second half. The positive is that we are being more compact and confident defensively,  and the clean sheet of today with Mumbai’s attacking force is important for us,” he finished off.

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