FC Goa registered three wins on the spin after defeating FC Pune City 4-2 in its second match at home on Sunday. The encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa produced an enthralling goal-fest, while also seeing the home side climb up to the top of the Indian Super League (Hero ISL) table having claimed 10 points out of a possible 12.
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The FC Goa coach Sergio Lobera was pleased with the side's goal-scoring display at home this season. “Yes, I’m happy with the performance of the team. We managed to score nine goals in two home games, so far. With that point I’m very happy. But we played a very open game today where the other team were given a lot of opportunities, where the two goals that they scored were due to tiny little mistakes that obviously cost us. But this is something that we obviously need to change and improve on”, he said.
He continued by sharing his views on the referee's decision to send off Ferran Corominas in stoppage time. “Evidently there’s bad news for us because we’re losing a player who’s very good and has been, so that’s obviously bad news for us. Also, particularly in the dying stages of the game to lose a player to such an instance, it always sours the victory. In my opinion had the other team not received a red card, with all the respect to the referees, I don’t think he would’ve given Corominas the red card either.”
When asked about his team’s phenomenal attack, the Spaniard shed some light on his idea behind this philosophy. He said, “When we go out to play, the idea is always to go out there and play on the front-foot and play an attacking brand of football. But ultimately a coach has to find the best manner to get there and do what he can do in the best possible way. So, it’s not about liking or not liking but ensuring that we do it in the best possible manner.”
Lobera’s counterpart, Pune City’s interim coach Pradyum Reddy was satisfied with his team’s performance despite the loss. “I’m very proud of the way the boys fought. Even if you look at it from the first minute, we were trying to have a go at them. Even after going a goal behind you expect the heads to drop, but they didn’t drop, and Marcelinho scored a great goal. We gave it all and the boys gave a good account of themselves. “
Reddy was happy with the team’s improvement after its abysmal start to the season, taking the performance as a positive for the upcoming fixtures. “We scored one goal in the first three games and we scored against one of the best teams in the league, one of the fittest teams in the league. So, that give us confidence knowing that you could see the work rate, and you could see the combination between Marcelinho, (Emiliano) Alfaro and the others. That’s a positive that we’ll take from this game going into the next game.”
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