Juan Ferrando: Before the red card, it was a beautiful game

The Spaniard insisted that his side were performing well before they were reduced to 10 men.

It was not a pretty sight, but Sergio Lobera managed to beat his former team in a high-voltage encounter. A late penalty from Adam le Fondre earned Mumbai City FC the three points against FC Goa, after Lenny Rodrigues had handled the ball inside his area in injury-time. Previously, Goa were on the ascendancy with their intense pressing preventing Mumbai City from creating any solid chances. However, a moment of madness from Redeem Tlang , saw Juan Ferrando and Co. go a man down for the last 50 minutes. That was the catalyst Mumbai needed, as they kept pushing and prodding for the eventual victory.

Ferrando felt that his players did a lot of work on the pitch. “Today, it is difficult to know about what happened. The real situation was that the team was working a lot. Our focus now is on the next game against NorthEast. It is very important to help the players, to work and to prepare for the next game," he stated.

The former Volos head coach also preferred to be ambiguous about the officiating during the 90 minutes. “I prefer not to talk about the referees, because everyone knows what is the level here.”

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The red card pushed his team back, but Juan Ferrando felt that his team made silly mistakes which ended up costing them a crucial point. “It is a difficult situation to play against a good team. Before the red card, it was beautiful. Two teams tried to play football, to build the game. After we moved to Plan B, it was effective for 25 minutes or so. But, I think the big problem was in transitions. Professional teams should not repeat these kind of problems.”

He, however, acknowledged that it would have been an uphill battle to score a goal after- the red card. “It is 11 fantastic players from Mumbai against 10 players who were working hard. I can change the plan to B or C, but with 10 players it was always difficult. The most important thing for us was to control the pace. Therefore, it is difficult to play in the normal positions in attack.”

Despite the closely fought battle that leaned heavily in Goa’s favour before Redeem Tlang’s dismissal, Juan Ferrando felt that his team are under-performing. "The squad needs to keep working hard to improve and get better results. In my opinion, it (one point) is not good. I repeat all the time in press conferences, our mentality is always three points. We need to continue working,” the Spaniard concluded.