Marco Pezzaiuoli provides tactical analysis after victory against Chennaiyin

The Blues finally ended their drought with a win over their southern rivals.

Bengaluru FC earned their first win after seven games with a 2-4 victory over Chennaiyin FC on Thursday. With these three crucial points, they move up to eighth in the standings -- thereby ending the year on a high. Speaking of the events, Mirlan Murzaev opened CFC's scoring with an early 4th minute goal. However, two more goals by Cleiton Silva and Alan Costa meant BFC went into the break with a lead.

Later, a butterfingers moment by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu led to Rahim Ali's equalizer in the 49th minute. Once again, however, Marco Pezzaiuoli's boys came back with two goals from two substitutes respectively -- Udanta Singh (70) and Pratik Chaudhari (74). This proved enough for their much-needed win -- that too in a spectacular manner.

After this triumph, head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli spoke at the post-match press conference.

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Meaning of victory

First up, he was asked about the result and what it meant for his team. That is, if it gave him and his side that much-needed confidence boost after such a long time.

On this, he expressed, "I think we had confidence all the time. It was not (there was) only one game that we played bad. I think the worst game we played was against ATK (Mohun Bagan) and we played (drew) 3-3; tactics-wise. When you win you can enjoy better and we can enjoy the New Year better tomorrow. But, the team from the first game until now have been playing well. Sometimes, they've had bad luck and that's the point. Nothing else."

On tactical changes

Next up, Marco Pezzaiuoli was asked to explain his thought process behind his substitutions -- such as Udanta Singh coming on early (25) and the triple substitution later, which collectively made a major difference. To this, he replied, "We changed a little bit of formation. We changed from four to three in the back to bring offence and I wanted to win the game. That's why I put offensive players more inside. Then, we deserved to go to 2-1, which was all a good sign of the team.

"But, at half-time, the opponent too changed tactically and we struggled to build-up easily. Then I changed again to four at the back and we came back. That's how we won the game."

Reason for Ajith Kumar's early substitution

Further, the 53-year-old was asked for his reason to bring off Ajith Kumar in the 25th minute -- whether it was because of his failure to impress him. On this, he responded, "No, I don't blame one player. I think it was a tactical thing and they were leading 1-0. I didn't wait so long at that moment because we have a lot of attacking players. That's why I chose to make the change early. Also, tactics-wise; an offensive player on the wing."

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Whether Sunil Chhetri would start in 2022

Lastly, he answered yet another question on skipper Sunil Chhetri's exclusion from the starting XI and if he would start more regularly from the next game onwards.

Answering this, Marco Pezzaiuoli expressed, "I hope so. He's one of our team members who has a lot of quality. Especially, in these 10 days (break), he trained very well. He was pushing a lot to be a starting member tonight. But, I decided not to do it. He came inside and made good action for the third goal.

"I think he had one or two chances more to give his last pass better and make his last decision. But, he's (still) Sunil -- a team player and that's how he pushes players in training and outside from the bench. When he came inside, he gave his 100% which is good;" he noted, thereby praising the captain's abilities and ending the press conference with it.

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