Mohun Bagan Super Giant won the 2023 Durand Cup title as they won 1-0 beating their arch-rivals East Bengal despite going down to 10 men. Dimitri Petratos scored the decisive goal for the Mariners. His goal helped them win their 17th Durand Cup title.
Head coach Juan Ferrando was delighted with the result. However, when asked about the Kolkata Derby win, the Spaniard remained grounded and termed it a pre-season tournament win. “Look, I’ll be honest. Before our Durand Cup games, I’ve said that this is still pre-season. We need to improve in transitions and in our position in the attacks.
However, the Spanish manager expressed his happiness on winning the Durand Cup. But he is also eager to win the upcoming two derbies in the ISL. “But I’m happy that the team showed character and that everyone wanted to help the team. These are the basic things for us to start clicking from pre-season. A happy dressing room is much better than working tactically for 1,000 hours. I didn’t think this to be a big final or this being the best derby win, we have to win two derbies more in the ISL this season,” Ferrando stated at the post-match press conference.
Jason Cummings did not start the match and when asked about the reason, Ferrando shared that it was a tactical call to bring him later in the game. However, he did admit that the red card to Anirudh Thapa changed his plans completely. “It was a tactical decision not to start him. Jason and Dimi had played 80-90 minutes two days ago, so we wanted to play one player. That is why Jason came in the second half and our plan was to use Manvir and Jason in the second half, due to our tactical plan. But we had to change the plan because of the red card, we had to prepare in a different way. But I’m happy because he fought a lot and did his best until the last minute.”
Speaking about Thapa’s red card, Ferrando opined, “I don’t know what to talk about the referee’s decision to send him off, he was looking well. I think he was very tired so it’s difficult to control some actions. This is the decision of the referees. I think Thapa performed well in the AFC Cup and this tournament. He needs to improve in the build-up play and with processing the ball forward in transitions, but I’m so happy with his job so far.”
Ferrando feels that the biggest takeaway from the tournament was that there were no injuries and they got a chance to play top teams in the process. He believes that these matches will only help him know more about the team. “The biggest positive for us is that there are no injuries! Of course, this is a trophy and I’m happy that we got to play against big teams – against Mumbai, Goa and today against East Bengal.
In this case, when you play friendly matches then you can learn things about your squad and try to find more formations. This was the most important thing, about how much I learnt about the squad,” he concluded.
The Mariners will aim to defend their ISL trophy and will also look to do well in the league phase. They also need to keep up the momentum in the upcoming AFC Cup fixtures.
