Jose Molina rues Mohun Bagan's lack of luck factor after Ahal FK loss in ACL Two

Mohun Bagan lost their opening ACL 2 fixture at their home on Tuesday.

Mohun Bagan started off their 2025-26 AFC Champions League Two campaign against Ahal FK in a disappointing fashion with a 1-0 loss at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday (September 16, 2025). After struggling to convert the few chances they got, the Mariners conceded a late goal to Ahal substitute Enwer Annayew and ended up going down to a disappointing defeat.

Jose Molina deemed this as a match that he felt that ‘both teams could have won’, as he reflected after the clash by stating: “I think it was a tough match for both teams. We both tried to dominate the game through ball possession, tried to create chances. We didn’t have chances in the first half, but in the second half we improved a lot and we had some clear-cut chances. In some moments, they could throw our pressure away and Vishal made some great saves too. Both teams could have won, but they were more successful in front of goal and that is why they won.”

Also Read: Mohun Bagan vs Ahal FK: Kiyan shines, Cummings fails to create impact, and other talking points

Mohun Bagan will ‘fight’ away from home

Molina opted to start only three foreign players in his starting XI against Ahal, benching the likes of Robson Robinho, Jamie Maclaren and Dimitrios Petratos. When asked about why he didn’t opt to play all six foreigners in the game, the gaffer claimed: “I always put the lineup of the players who I feel that the players who can help the team to win the most.”

A loss in the opening game keeps Mohun Bagan in a precarious position in Group C of the ACL Two group stages, as they have two tough away games up next. Reflecting on how tough it’ll be for his side to get back to their best after this defeat, Molina claimed: “We know that it’s never easy to play in the AFC competition, and we of course have to try and win the home matches. It always seems that the home games could be easy, but we always try to win the matches, and that doesn’t matter where we play or against whom we play. We’ll do the same in the upcoming away games, and we know the next game will be tough in Iran against a very good team, but we’ll go there to fight and try to win. It’ll be difficult, but we are going to try.”

Upon being questioned on which aspects of his team need to be improved for the upcoming matches, Molina explained, “I can’t express one thing that need to be fixed. I want to improve my team all the time; we are not perfect. It’s not just issues with attack, defence, full-backs, centre-backs, and attackers. We are always trying to help the players to improve as players and also improve as a team. We are at the beginning of the season, and we are not in the same momentum as we had at times last season.”

“Absolutely proud of my players”

“We are trying to get fit, organize the team, and I feel the team is good and capable of winning. If we had scored one goal and won 1-0, the expressions would be absolutely different. We didn’t achieve that and we are all now so sad, and maybe some feel we are a really poor team, but that is not my opinion. I’m absolutely proud of my players, they fought until the end and had their chances. Sometimes, the opponents are a bit luckier than you and congratulations to them and we will keep fighting to try to win.”

Finally, the Mohun Bagan gaffer showed a sign of optimism for the future, as he stated: “I understand that people like to win all the time, and I like to win and we fight to win. Sometimes, you cannot win and that doesn’t mean for me that the players didn’t do a great jo or didn’t try. We have to congratulate them for the fight. Sometimes, we are going to win and sometimes we will lose.

“Hopefully we win more times than we lose. Absolutely proud of my players. Today is a day for us to cry, but that is life. Tomorrow the sun will shine again and we will work to improve and try to win the next game,” he finished off with.

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