Very proud of the attitude of my players, says Sergio Lobera

The Mumbai City FC head coach also revealed that his side 'suffered' in the second half against Chennaiyin FC.

Mumbai City FC bagged three points as they secured a narrow 2-1 victory against a tenacious Chennaiyin FC side on Wednesday evening. The Islanders have now recorded their fourth win in the Indian Super League and are placed on top of the standings currently. Following the game, Mumbai City FC head coach Sergio Lobera spoke in the post-match press conference. 

"We played against a very good team. I think Chennaiyin is a very competitive team. It was not easy for us today," he began. "I am very proud of the attitude of my players. We suffered a lot during some period of the second half and I am very proud because when you are a winning team you know to manage well this situation during suffering. I am very happy with these three points against a very good team," Sergio Lobera added.

Both teams fought tooth and nail to notch the three points. While the game looked like would end as a stalemate at one point of time, Mumbai City FC proved it otherwise. Sergio Lobera was asked whether the quality present in his team prompted him to push for the victory until the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo7rM6E294s

“Always, I try to win. My players, it’s very important to believe in the end. Finally, the result is this. For us, three points is very important and always we want to win,” the 43-year-old mentioned. 

“I think it’s important psychological victory because we have a lot (of games). We played one game three days ago and it wasn’t easy to win the game and I am very happy with this situation."

Chennaiyin FC were right on the money from the start, which made it difficult for Mumbai to get in the groove in the first half. The players struggled to stitch coherent passes for a stretch of time and were dispossessed quite often. 

The Mumbai City FC boss was asked whether the team needs to be more convincing in the initial phases of the games and if they had room for development in that aspect. “Always, need to improve. We are working in a short time as I told you before about time due to pre-season. But, always it’s important to improve (while) winning. In the first minutes, we can play better. I think sometimes the opponent team have respect to us and we need to keep the respect. Our mistakes it is not possible to give them the opportunities. But, I am happy. I am very happy with the performance of my team.”

Mumbai’s ability to capitalize on set-pieces made the difference for them in this game. Interestingly, Sergio Lobera credited his assistant Jesus Tato for working with players to improve on this aspect of their gameplay. “Tato, my assistant coach, is doing the job in set-pieces. There are more times to change the game. This is one example. I am very happy and I want to tell congratulations to my assistant coach for his job,” the head coach quipped. 

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Mandar Rao Dessai’s father’s demise on December 3 has kept him out of action for Mumbai City FC in the last two games. The Spaniard was asked to reflect on this situation and comment on the club’s response to the player’s tragic loss. “It’s a very difficult situation. Mandar is a big player but he is a very good person, an excellent person. He is living very hard moments, he and his family. Try to help him a lot but in this situation it’s very difficult,” he expressed. 

“And you know, the situation now is very hard. When Mandar come back to the hotel, he needs 14 days of quarantine. In this situation, it’s not very easy. But, we are a family. We are a family. In hard moments, in bad moments, we are together and he is our family and we are Mandar’s family,” the tactician signed off. 

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