The Spanish coach hailed the performances of his young players against the reigning champions at their home…
The Odisha FC juggernaut came to a halt on Wednesday as they succumbed to an embarrassing 3-0 defeat against Bengaluru FC away from home.
Odisha boss Josep Gombau wasn’t too disappointed despite a heavy defeat against the Blues as he suggested that injuries to key players like Aridane Santana and Marcos Tebar changed the game.
“This is something that we need to improve. We conceded from three set-pieces, corner, free-kick and a penalty. But this is one part of the game that we need to analyse. The other thing is that in the first 20 minutes we played very well. I think that we had the control of the game but then important players (Aridane Santana and Marcos Tebar) got injured. Then it became difficult for us. It is not an excuse. It was 11 vs 11. But when you lose important players of your first XI it becomes difficult to win.”
Gombau took the defeat as a learning process for the youngsters in his squad and suggested that they need to take the defeat in a sporting manner.
“I am happy with the performance of the other players. We have as many as seven young players in the squad. They did a great job. When you win you need to be good winners and when you lose you have to accept that. It was just three points, not the end of the world. To me, it is like a win as the young players grew from the experience and that is what I told my boys.”
“Now what I am worried about is about the recovery of the injured players. We have three or four players out and this is an important game for us. Every game is different. Today we lost but if you see the last seven games then we won five and lost two. If you see this way it is positive.”
Gombau acknowledged that it isn’t an easy job to come at Bengaluru and beat the winning champions but he once again hailed the valiant effort of his players.
“It was a difficult game to come here and win. How many teams come here and win? Not many. They have India national team players who have experience and we competed with a lot of kids. I am happy. I am proud of the players. They are not afraid to play the football they played. We tried to play from the back, we don’t kick here and there. Even with the young kids, we did a good job at the home of the current champions.”