Sergio Lobera warns Mohun Bagan to be wary of Mumbai City threat ahead of big ISL 2025-26 clash

Mohun Bagan will seek redemption after the draw against Bengaluru FC

Mohun Bagan are poised to face off against 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) title challengers Mumbai City in their upcoming match on Friday, 20 March (2026). With the Mariners only having a two-point lead over their title challengers at top of the ISL table, this is a must-win game for them to regain control of the championship race heading into the March (2026) interntional break.

Sergio Lobera is urging his Mohun Bagan players to get back to earning three points so as to justify only picking up one point in their recent draw against Bengaluru FC, as he stated: “My mentality is when you play for three points and win only one, you lose two. Somethings could’ve happened in the last game, we could’ve been better towards the end of the game. I felt that we could’ve won the last game and my feeling is we lost two points more than winning one point. For some people, it could be good to get one point as it helped us stay top of the table after the last game.

“We need to win this next game so that we can be happy with the point we got before, because that allowed us to stay top of the table. But if we can’t win the next game, that point against Bengaluru won’t be good. This will be a big game against a strong team like Mumbai City. We are aiming to finish the top of the table, and we don’t have a big gap over them. If they win the game, they’ll be top of the table. This will be a big game and a kind fo game I love to play, and we will fight hard to get all three points,” he added.

Importance to retain ISL top spot before March break

When asked how important it is for Mohun Bagan to retain their place on top of the ISL table heading into the break.

The Spaniard replied: “The most important thing is to be top of the table after the last game. I want to go into the break by winning this Mumbai City game, as it could be great for our momentum.

“It’s not just because that we’ll be top of the table, but because it will be a win against a team that will be serious challengers for the title until end of the season. We are excited about this big game for us, we’ll play at home in front of our fans. It’ll be a tough game for us, but also for them,” he further claimed.

Need for Mohun Bagan to be wary of Mumbai City counter-attack threat

Lobera is aware that Mumbai City will take the fight to Mohun Bagan and wants his players to be particularly wary of their counter-attacking threat.

He explained: “Our plan is always to try and find a balance. They are a good team in general, not just in attacking positions. They have a good balance, and we need to get past that. We need to score goals and handle the opponents using our tools, as well as finding the balance in terms of transitions. They have big, fast players in key positions, and they are great in transitions after recovering the ball. Sometimes when you dominate the game, you need to be careful with vigilance on counterattacks. When we lose the ball, we cannot allow them to have spaces to attack us.

“It’s important to be compact, it’s important to avoid transitional issues and also important when we have the ball to be ready for transitions when we lose the ball. I think they will contest us for the ball, compared with other teams that they’ve played till now because other opponents – when they don’t have possession of the ball then they will stay in their half with more than 10 players behind the ball. They’re comfortable playing like this, but Mumbai City won’t be like that. We need to compete for the possession of the ball, we need to try find the spaces and also ready to counter the transitions after losing the ball,” he also stated.

Any need for plan B against defensive teams?

When asked if he is creating a plan B in Mohun Bagan’s playing style against cautious opponents who like to defend deep against them.

Lobera stated: “We need to believe in different plans because every team we play against are different and cannot be compared. Some opponents which play against us will have total different plans for the games against Chennaiyin, Kerala or against Mumbai City. Mumbai City like to have possession of the ball, they are not comfortable to give opponents the ball and only look for counter-attacks. We need to be ready for different options.

“The most important thing for me is that we are generating clear-cut chances. In the last game, in the second half against Bengaluru, practically for 90% of the time they played with 10 players behind the ball. It’s different to find spaces when opponents defend like this, but we still had clear chances to win the game. I think till now we are doing this (creating chances), while playing against different styles of play. The plan B needs to be there for tomorrow’s game and we need to continue creating chances and be more clinical in finishing off those chances to get three points against Mumbai City,” he also added.

Lobera’s praise for Mohun Bagan fans and links to Bangladesh job

Lobera gave praise to the Mohun Bagan devoted supporters for ensuring their dominance home form since the 2024-25 ISL campaign.

He claimed, “Obviously, when you play at home under home fans, that makes a difference. They help us a lot. We want to thank all the supporters who also supported us in Bengaluru, because it was amazing how they turned up to energise us in the stadium. Mohun Bagan is the biggest club in India, you feel that at home and also playing away.

“Having big supporters is an advantage, but we also play in the pitch to prove we’re better than them. The past is the past, because in the past I won the double against ATK Mohun Bagan when I was Mumbai City coach. I hope the situation changes now and that we win the game tomorrow,” the gaffer added.

Finally, Lobera was confronted to speak about rumors linking him to the Bangladesh football team head coach role and he responded by saying: “I’m going to speak about my future at the end of the season. I want to make it clear because if the links to Bangladesh team comes more times, you’ll get the same answers.

“I want to hit my target to win trophies with Mohun Bagan and I don’t want to put focus on other rumors. The most important thing for me is the present, is the next game and the next training session. I won’t speak about this until the end of the season,” he finished with.

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