ISL 2019-20 | First half belonged to Bengaluru, second half to us, opines Antonio Iriondo
Jamshedpur FC head coach Antonio Iriondo has discerned that visitors Bengaluru FC dominated the first half in the 0-0 draw at the Furnace on Sunday, while his players returned the favour in the second. While the match was filled with errors, Iriondo stated that he was content with the clean sheet.
It was a match of equals between BFC and JFC and although both the teams would see the match as a chance missed, Iriondo has been of the opinion that it was a match of different halves. While BFC did dominate proceedings during the first 45 minutes, the hosts improved themselves in the second half to keep the match on the wire.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, the content head coach said, “No, I’m not happy with the performance today. We had phases where we played well, but other phases we played very badly. The big problem was that we made a lot of mistakes in passing and that doesn’t allow you to keep the ball and have control of the game,” reported ISL website.
It was also a tale of two goalkeepers on Sunday with a bunch of matching winning saves coming from between the sticks of both the ends. And Iriondo was quick to heap praise on veteran Subrata Paul, who was their hero of the evening, saving as many as nine saves.
"We have a clean sheet against a great team. Our goalkeeper (Subrata Paul) had a great game. I think that we can divide the match into the two parts. First-half belonged to Bengaluru. They played so much better than us. Second-half, I think we played better than them and created many more chances. Their goalkeeper made some great saves as well," Iriondo said.
Unlike the last two seasons, JFC have made a good start to the league this time around garnering seven points from three matches. And going into the two-day break, Iriondo admitted that he couldn’t be happier.
“I am happy with seven points. At the beginning of the league, it’s a very good thing. Especially when you consider that we are a new team and we are trying to adjust. I think it’s a very good situation to have seven points at this moment. We will keep improving and we will have the team that we want," he added.
