Guimaraes pleased with back-to-back wins, Portugal rues bad luck

It was another miserable night for the Lions as the hosts were rampant in a 4-0 success.

Mumbai City FC cantered to a 4-0 win over Delhi Dynamos FC in Indian Super League (ISL) at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday. Goals from Lucian Goian, Everton Santos and Thiago Santos and Balwant Singh ensured back to back victory for the Islanders as they jumped to the second spot on the table. Speaking to the media during the post-match presser was Alexandre Guimaraes, who started off by expressing his delight at the win.

“I think we totally deserved the win today,” he gushed. “We improve in many phases of our game. Finally we perform well in certain situations. It was important for us to try to get a second win in a row for the players to get confidence. Also, it’s good to have the whole squad ready.”

He also explained the strategy with which they approached the game. “I think that in the first half we tried to make a very good impressive start,” the Costa Rican revealed. “We felt that if we can get a goal in 15-20 minutes, it could hurt them."

We did it and when they started to play their game we got the second goal. For a team to have been losing, it’s very hard to recover in the second half. In the 10-against-10 game, I feel today we played even better.”

The 58-year-old was also extremely pleased after picking up successive wins for the first time this season.

“It was important for us to win today, to be there with the pack,” he explained. “Some more games to be played, but we did our job and continue to be there. Then we’ll see what happens. It’s first time that we manage to win two games in a row is a big push.

Before wrapping up, he also heaped praise on Everton Santos who scored was instrumental in Mumbai’s win.

He’s (Everton) a very competitive player,” Guimaraes said. “Sometimes he plays up front, sometimes he plays on the flanks and he’s on fire.”

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The loss leaves the Lions rooted at the bottom of the table as they were also left to rue a number of missed opportunities. Speaking to the media during the post-match press conference was their head coach Miguel Portugal, who stated that bad luck proved to be their downfall in a match where they performed well.

“We played well but we did not score a goal,” he said. “Opportunity makes a goal. Football is only for the winner. We tried to make opportunities, but hard luck was with my team.”

He further elaborated, “In football, if we score a goal before the other team, it is possible to win. In this competition, it is very much possible to win. We played good football, had opportunities but no goals. You look at the statistics. You play in that position and don’t score goals. If you score one goal less you’re not going to win.”

The Spaniard signed off by voicing his disagreement with the red card shown to Matias Mirabaje.

“Matias is not a red card,” he opined. I don’t know what is really in the situation between Matias and the player (Sehnaj Singh). The referee saw something that I did not see.

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