Josep Gombau unhappy with fixtures, Jorge Costa praises Ravi Kumar's efforts

The fixture saw Mumbai City climb the ladder to the fifth place in the standings.

Mumbai City FC defeated Delhi Dynamos 2-0 in the Indian Super League with a convincing display against the Lions. Arnold Issoko and Modou Sougou found the back of the nets for the Islanders while Rafael Bastos missed a penalty. The win saw Mumbai climb to the fifth spot of the league table after winning seven points in five games.

After the game ended, the two head coaches met the media for a press conference. Below are the excerpts from the same.

 

 

 

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Watch: Mumbai City FC 2-0 Delhi Dynamos highlights

Delhi Dynamos coach Josep Gombau seemed happy despite the loss as for him the performance of the players was satisfactory. The coach reflected, "I think in the first start we started very well. But after that Mumbai started to play, things started becoming difficult for us. Then they scored the goal."

"I think I am happy with the performance of the players," he stated.

After going down by a goal, Delhi came close to scoring multiple times, courtesy of the crosses from the right flank by Lallianzuala Chhangte. But the Mumbai goalkeeper Ravi Kumar stood tall and denied the visitors on every occasion he was challenged. Gombau said, "The good thing is that we are creating a lot of good chances. And in football, it is not easy to create a lot of scoring chances."

When questioned how the coach has decided to use the young midfielder Vinit Rai, the coach responded, "We are doing some rotations in the midfield line. In the previous game we used Bikram and now we played Vinit."

Delhi played its fourth game in the space of ten days and they have to play another in the next three days. Josep Gombau agrees that the scheduling of the league is a big issue. "For sure, the scheduling is a big problem in this league."

To conclude, the Delhi Dynamos gaffer said, "Football is all about winning and we will try to win every game. But these losses won't change anything. We are going to play the same football that I like."

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Jorge Costa was a much-relieved man after the win. And the coach compared the game against FC Goa and this game by saying, "I said they must respect the job, and the fans. After the game in Goa where we had a very good first half and could have scored five-six goals, but we gave up. And today we played well and that too in just three days."

"We created chances, we missed a penalty, but that's okay. I am happy," Costa said.

When asked what did Jorge say to the players to motivate them after the FC Goa game, the Mumbai gaffer replied, "This is our job and life. We must be prepared to play the next game. We don't have time to celebrate. I asked them to forget the last 20 minutes and be happy with the fact that we played good football."

Jorge Costa believes that there is still a lot to do and that they are not finished yet. "After FC Goa game, we were not the worst team in the world, after this game, we are not the best team in the world. This is my philosophy. And this is what I want my players to do."

The Mumbai gaffer also had some words of gratitude for his second choice goalkeeper, who rose to the occasion and had a tremendous day securing the post. He said, "He (Ravi) had a very good game and he gave confidence to the team. This is very important. I trust whole 25 players of the squad."

The Mumbai City FC tactician also revealed that he does not believe that his team lacks character and he is adamant about his team having the zeal to fight for the top honours.

"They showed character in the first game, in the second game and in the third game. In every game, they have shown character. They just can't give up. And I do not have any doubts about the character of the team," Costa quipped.

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Costa agreed that there are still some concerns for him, one of which is penalty misses. Mumbai City have already missed two penalties this season- one each by Raphael Bastos and Lucian Goian.

"Yes, it is a cause of concern. We missed twice. If we had scored, the match would have been much better for us," he concluded.