Carles Cuadrat praises his players' performance, Sergio Lobera criticizes gameplay

Both sides have now qualified for the playoffs of the league this term.

FC Goa succumbed to 10-man Bengaluru FC in comprehensive fashion on Thursday night. The Blues showed amazing maturity and character to score three unanswered goals in the second half, despite their full-back Nishu Kumar being sent off in the 42nd minute.

Goals from Juanan, Udanta Singh and Miku helped the home side to dethrone the Gaurs form the top of the table. The Gaurs failed to utilize their domination on the ball to good effect and slipped to the second position in the table.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

A post shared by Indian Super League (@indiansuperleague) on Feb 21, 2019 at 8:20am PST

Watch: Bengaluru FC 3-0 FC Goa highlights

Complacency was the primary casue for concern for the away side's coach. "I think the fact that Bengaluru went one man down, I think it was bad for us because I believe we became overconfident. We thought it would be easier," Lobera insisted.

"I think since becoming the head coach of Goa, these last 45 minutes were the worst for me. I think we have managed them going one man down in a bad way. We can't concede a goal from a set-piece, it was a big mistake," the Spaniard quipped before adding, "We had chances to try and come back, but then immediately the second goal. But, I want to congratulate Bengaluru because they have been better."

Despite the flurry of missed chances in the second half, the tactician was unhappy with the team's appliacation of his philosophy. "It’s true that we had many chances. But, I am not very happy with how we generated those chances becasue that is not our style of football," he said.

"We played like it was an open game. We wanted to win quickly and we had gone far from what is our idea of football," the Spaniard concluded.

ALSO READ

• Indian Player Ratings: Udanta Singh & Rahul Bheke architects of Bengaluru's convincing win over Goa

• Trio on target as Bengaluru brush aside FC Goa

• Steve Coppell feels qualification is difficult, Jorge Costa feels Mumbai are in a better position than ATK

Carles Cuadrat believes the players deserve all the praise for the victory. "Let's be clear. It is not my job, the boys did it. They were working a lot. They put a lot of heart. I had only said to play 4-4-1, to be together, help each other and try to get the space upfront. The boys made the magic happen," Cuadrat said.

He also believes that the referee's decision to send off Nishu Kumar had a positive impact on the team. "The team was under a stress situation over the last few weeks becasue of the results. We have two games lost in a row. We are doing rotation. We have some players like Sunil (Chhetri) whom we have to preserve becasue we don't want him to get injured," Cuadrat quipped.

"The players understand, but they feel bad becasue they are losing games. Maybe that red card was a turning point in the game. Maybe the red card made the players feel that they have to fight to get one point and finally three points," he explained.

[KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]

"They came here with a plan, they did not rotate. They wanted the three points and they were working for that, they created a lot of chances. They had posession of the ball, they even hit the post. They were controlling the game, but one thing changed everything," Cuadrat concluded.

Goa take on Chennaiyin in Goa IN their last league match on 28th February, while Bengaluru visit playoffS aspirants Jamshedpur FC on the 27th, with the aim to hold on to their top spot.