Sergio Lobera relishes challenge of Mohun Bagan's first away match in ISL 2025-26 against Bengaluru FC

Bengaluru FC will host the Mariners at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

Mohun Bagan are poised to play in their first away match in the 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) when they travel to face Bengaluru FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru on Saturday, 14 March (2026). With the Mariners maintaining a 100% win record in the ISL so far this season, they’ll be determined to continue that run and make a statement of intent on their title aspirations against the former ISL champions.

Before the match, Sergio Lobera was questioned about how confident he remains for the Mariners’ chances of maintaining their winning run against Bengaluru FC.

He replied: “We are happy with how we’ve worked till now. But football is about the present and we are thinking about the next game, which will be a good test for us to play against a very good team in a difficult place to win.

“We are excited about the game, we are working on winning it and hopefully we can get more important points on the board for ourselves in the game,” he added.

Pressure on Mohun Bagan before first away game

When asked if he feels that Mohun Bagan might be under added pressure as this is their first away game of the campaign.

Lobera claimed: “When you are playing at home in front our fans in this stadium, that makes it helpful to us. If you ask me, I’d prefer to play at home than away. But the situation is that we have four difficult games playing away, and maybe the most difficult games.

“And this is the first one playing against Bengaluru FC in their stadium, and it won’t be easy. But if you want to win trophies you need to win the best away games. It’s a good challenge for us and a new experience for me to feature in away games as a Mohun Bagan coach. I’m happy about the challenge confident about the work the team is doing to get results,” he further quipped.

Complacency setting in at Mohun Bagan?

The Spanish gaffer also rubbished claims about complacency potentially setting into the Mohun Bagan squad after winning four straight matches.

As he explained: “No, because I work with the professionals every day and they are showing their confidence to me now. If you have a winning mentality and if you want to win trophies, you know you need to give 100% in every training session and every game.

“We are working at the same level for the first time. When you get good results and consistent wins, this is something you need to keep going. The players are doing this on the training session and I have no reason to fear about any complacency within my players,” he also stated.

Thoughts on Bengaluru FC’s form and quality

Lobera doesn’t feel that Bengaluru FC have had a major drop-off in their quality from the previous campaign.

As he stated: “In football the past is past. It doesn’t give you any advantage and every season is different for every club. I think Bengaluru FC have a new team and you can’t compare them with last season, but that doesn’t mean they are better or worse than before.

“We need to focus on ourselves and know that this will be a hard test for us and we need to be excited about this to show that we are ready to play these kind of games in this kind of scenarios. You cannot compare, not only Bengaluru FC, but all the teams’ changes from the previous seasons to the current one,” he added.

Plans for Bengaluru FC’s top players

Finally, when asked if his Mohun Bagan players will focus on combating quality players like Sunil Chhetri or Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the Bengaluru FC match, Lobera replied: “Every game is different. We know how Bengaluru played in previous games but we need to be ready to play against the best Bengaluru FC. When they’ll play against us, they will get extra motivation.

“Playing against Mohun Bagan and winning against us gives extra motivation for opponents. There are no plans for any individual players, you need to win the games as a team and we don’t need to focus on two or three BFC players. We need to be ready to beat a very good opponent as a team, more than individuals, he finished off with.

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