Carles Cuadrat not worried about defence, Cesar Ferrando happy with a draw

Gaurav Mukhi became the youngest player in the history of the ISL to score a goal.

It was a cracking last 15 minutes at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Sunday night as visitors Jamshedpur FC came from behind twice to rob hosts Bengaluru FC of a win. After a stalemate, the coaches from the two sides met the media in the post-match press conference.

The two goals Bengaluru conceded could’ve been avoided with better defending, but Blues head coach Carles Cuadrat was supportive of his back four, “Well these things happen in football. The second goal by them came due to a lucky ricochet into our box. I feel our defence did a good job overall, they (Jamshedpur) had only two shots at goal and scored from both.”

Watch: Bengaluru FC 2-2 Jamshedpur FC highlights

“We had chances to further the gap in the scoreline, to make it 2-0 and later in the match 3-1, but when you are winning by only one goal, such things happen.”

The gaffer touched upon Nishu Kumar’s increased attacking role in this match and praised his beautiful strike for the opener.  “I always talk to my players to add to the team’s offensive play. We have two great centre-backs in Serran and Juanan who are solid at the back, so I want my full-backs to make runs upfront and provide options. It was a good goal from Nishu, a great strike.”

Cuadrat also talked about the chance inspirational captain Sunil Chhetri missed at the fag-end of the match to seal the win for the Blues, “Sunil started it off with a great first touch and then it was an excellent ball from Miku, but sometimes when you have so much time in front of goal to decide the direction of your shot, you can miss and in this case Sunil hit the post.”

He further added, “It could have been a special moment in front of the home crowd, but I guess we will have to wait for the games in the future to have a moment like this.”

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The opposing team’s head coach was content with taking away a point from such a difficult match as he said, “We had a big challenge to play against Bengaluru, they are a very good team. We wanted to play together as a team and not give their players to control much space. We tried to control the game from the start and we gave our best, I feel the draw is a fair result. Considering the effort my players put in and the opposition we played, I am happy with the draw.”

The former Atletico Madrid coach was not much amused by the defensive performance of his team, “I am not happy with that, we could’ve conceded more than the two goals today. We shouldn’t have conceded the second goal, you should jump and try to defend it, but these things happen. The first goal, I think we defended the corner well, but the second goal could’ve been avoided.”

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The man of the moment, 16-year-old Gaurav Mukhi who scored the first goal for the Men of Steel was all smiles at the press conference, “Being a local lad of Jamshedpur, this is a moment I could’ve only dreamt of. But, more than me it is my father who would be happier, who always tells me to work harder and give my all for the team.”

Asked about his bonding with the legendary Tim Cahill in the dressing room the teenager said, “Tim is always asking me to work harder, to focus more. He has his eyes on me all the time.”