Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham stressed the importance of maintaining the tempo throughout the match as they suffered a disappointing 2-4 loss to Odisha FC in their Indian Super League (ISL) 2021-22 match at the Tilak Maidan Stadium on Monday.
Aridai Cabrera (4') scored an early goal against the run of play but Ahmed Jahouh (11') quickly brought the game on level terms with a superb finish. Igor Angulo (38') then headed Mumbai into the lead before Jerry Mawihmingthanga (70', 77') scored a memorable brace to hand the lead back to the Kalinga Warriors. Jonathas (89') put the result beyond any doubt by scoring the fourth.
At the press conference after the match, the coach talked about Mumbai's performance: "I think in the first half we were exceptional. I think we played some extremely good football to go 2-1 up, and I felt we should have been more. We played some really good attacking football, how we want to play, and we defended extremely well and that didn't continue in the second half. And that's something disappointing not just for me, but for the team. And that's something that we need to address to go into the next game against SC East Bengal."
The coach also opened about the leaky Mumbai defence, he said: "We will win games one-nil or five-four, but it's important the football we played in the first half. That's how we want to play, and it's important that we try and play that over the 90 minute period and not a 45 minute one. And if we can start doing that and showing signs of that throughout the season, I'll be very pleased, but we again need to make sure that we defend a lot better than we have this evening."
The result leaves Des Buckingham's men winless in three games. Victory for Kiko Ramirez's men means that only three points separate them from the league leaders despite being in seventh place on the table.
The Islanders, who are currently at the top of the ISL table, will next face SC East Bengal on January 7.
( With inputs from ANI )
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