ISL | Now it is time to take rest and come back stronger, says Jorge Costa

12/17/2018

Jorge Costa has stated that he is very happy to get three points from the last match before the winter break and added that his boys will now look to rest and come back stronger after the break. In a strong performance, Mumbai City FC defeated Kerala Blasters 6-1 at Mumbai Football Arena.

In the last match before the Indian Super League (ISL) went into more than a month-long hiatus, Mumbai City FC totally decimated Kerala Blasters’ challenge and defeated them 6-1 in one of the more lopsided encounters of this ISL season. Mumbai was the dominating side right from the start of the match with Modou Sougou scoring two quick goals in the 13th and 15th minutes of the match to give the Mumbai team a lead of 2-0.

"I’m very happy. We got three points. We had to be very focused on this game because it was before the break. Three very important points. Now its time to go home, to rest a little bit and to come back stronger than we are in this moment," Jorge Costa said at the post-match conference.

Though Kerala Blasters tried to make a fightback managing to score a goal in the 27th minute with Seminlen Doungel’s strike. Soon Sougou struck in the 30th minute for Mumbai reasserting their dominance and making the scoreline 3-1. Three more goals were scored by Mumbai City FC of which two came at the fag end of the game in 89th minute and in injury time after Rafael Bustos managed a goal in the 70th minute of the match.

"I thought that we played a wonderful game. The full team worked hard. We play as a team and when we do this, it's normal that Sougou and Arnold (Issoko) can do something that people like. He scored the four goals because the team worked. They worked a lot," Costa opined.

Costa hinted that the team took a little bit of time to settle into the tournament as a team before they started getting their act right. He also asserted that now everyone in the team understands what they have to do.

"Nothing special. For me, when I arrived here it was all new. For some players, it was also new. And we needed time to adapt to this new reality. We were the last team to start working and at the beginning, it was difficult for us. But now we understand what we must do. We know all the teams."

For the Kerala Blasters FC, the season seems to be getting bad to worse as they slipped to one of their worst defeats in their history. Coach David James was not a happy man but praised his team’s performance in the second half of the game.

"Second half, with 10 men, we played like it was 12. It was a tremendously spirited performance by our team. I think their performance deserved more. They were time wasting when they were two goals up. They felt some kind of pressure from us. But their performance in the second half was amazing," James admitted.

With another defeat, the hope of making it to the top four seems to have diminished considerably for the Blasters. They are currently at the eighth position on the points table with nine points in twelve games.

"Mumbai scored some very nice goals. The second-half was tough to take because at 3-1 we had a penalty claim. I’ve got a team who are devastated after losing 6-1. We dominated possession. Yes, they had some wonderful goals, but in the end, decisions went against us. And it’s tough to take," he argued.

ISL | Now it is time to take rest and come back stronger, says Jorge Costa

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