Mohun Bagan Super Giant was shocked by Odisha FC in their AFC Cup 2023-24 group stage match with a resounding 5-2 loss at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on Monday.
Hugo Boumous gave Mohun Bagan SG the lead, but Odisha FC responded with three quick goals from Roy Krishna, Diego Mauricio, and Cy Goddard. Kiyan Nassiri reduced the deficit for the Mariners in the second half before Aniket Jadhav and Isak added late goals in injury time respectively, to seal the win for Odisha FC.
Mohun Bagan SG head coach Juan Ferrando was a disappointed man after the loss.
“We had some problems, some players were not 100% fit and some other ones weren’t playing due to injury. This is a part of football,” Juan Ferrando said at the post-match press conference.
When asked about the margin of loss to Odisha, having beaten the fellow Indian Super League side 4-0 in their opening AFC Cup fixture, Ferrando clarified it did not matter.
“The last two goals came in the 92nd and 94th minute. That is because we focused totally in attack and it’s normal. Losing 5-2 in this case is like losing by 3-2 or 6-2. A minimum for us was to at least make it 3-3 and we were only thinking of our attack because drawing the game was most important at that time. If we lose 2-5 or 1-2, it’s the same,” Ferrando said.
The result sees Odisha FC leapfrog Mohun Bagan SG in the group standings, moving to the second position. Sergio Lobera’s side needs to beat Bangladesh’s Bashundhara Kings in their final group game to top their group and qualify for the next round.
Ahead of the match, Bashundhara Kings came back to beat Maziya S&RC in the dying minutes of the other game. When asked if that result had any bearing on the players’ mentality, Juan Ferrando it was probably present in the back of the minds.
“For us, we saw during the warm-ups that Bashundhara had changed the score to 2-1. So everyone knew the situation at that time. We tried to think about ourselves and do our things. Three mistakes is the reason why we conceded the goals. In the AFC Cup, we need to depend on our performance and not on the other results. This is different when we play in the ISL,” he said.
“Before the game, everyone saw that Maziya was up 1-0. But then they changed the score in two minutes. We were thinking of our details, but it’s true that in the back of the mind we knew that result made things very difficult and that we needed to win to get into the next round,” he added.
Juan Ferrando went on to add that the results against Bashundhara Kings proved detrimental to their chances, especially playing their home encounter away in Bhubaneshwar.
“We already played at home against Bashundhara, but we couldn’t play here (in Kolkata) and that was disappointing. The results against Bashundhara were really disappointing. Everyone knows that if you lose one and draw the other game against a team, the opponent has more chances to go through,” Ferrando said.
“After the matches against Bashundhara, the next two games became difficult because our qualification depended on the other results. But this is an international competition, it’s not possible to say that we want the trophy. You have to deserve it. Sometimes one mistake costs you and that one bad day against Bashundhara knocked us out of the competition,” he added.
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