Juan Ferrando reveals reason for defeat against Hyderabad FC

The Spaniard wowed to keep a positive mentality heading into the second leg.

ATK Mohun Bagan suffered a 1-3 loss in the first leg of their Indian Super League (ISL) semi-finals against Hyderabad FC on Saturday. The Mariners took the lead through Roy Krishna in the 18th minute, but goals from Bartholomew Ogbeche (45+3’), Mohammed Yasir (58’) and Javier Siverio (64’) helped the Nizams get a major lead in the tie. Head coach Juan Ferrando shared his thoughts post the defeat.

Here are excerpts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gB8_HpX3PY

Thoughts on defeat

Juan Ferrando was annoyed to see his side suffer a damning loss even after taking the lead, as he reacted to the match and said, “I think the team was tired, had some injury problems and some substitutions were related to injuries.

“That forced us to change the plan too much. On top of that, we made too many mistakes, we lost focus in key moments. In these moments, if you lose focus against a team like Hyderabad, you can be in for trouble,” he added.

Fitness status of team

Tiri suffered a nasty injury before the second goal and had to be substituted, along with four more players in the game. When asked about the Spaniard and other players’ fitness status, Juan Ferrando said, “We’ll see. It’s difficult because we need a minimum 2-3 days and then we’ll see what happens.”

Defensive Errors

The Mariners conceded some cheap goals, mostly because of defensive errors. Speaking about what went wrong in the game, Juan Ferrando explained, “I think in the first corner (for Ogbeche’s goal), there was an offside call not given. I don’t know, it’s necessary to know about this. For the second, we made two mistakes in losing possession of the ball.”

Strategy for second leg

ATK Mohun Bagan still have a chance to win the tie, but might need the help of extra-time or even a penalty shootout to do so in the second leg. When asked about whether he’s now thinking about stretching the next game to extra-time or to kill the game in 90 minutes itself, Juan Ferrando said, “In the end, it’s like the game against Jamshedpur. The odds are almost the same."

“We need to try to find solutions and our mentality all the time is to win, that will never change. Our mentality is to win every game and it’s necessary to win on Wednesday. Of course, we need to win at least by 2-0, but we’ll try to do the best,” he concluded.

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