Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham was delighted with the result and the performance of his team after they bested Bengaluru FC by 4-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai on Thursday. It was a dominating performance from the Islanders as they ticked the right boxes throughout the game.
Pereyra Diaz scored the opening goal for the home team in the 14th minute of the game. Apuia then doubled Mumbai City FC’s lead in the 32nd minute. The hosts continued their domination in the second half as Bipin Singh found the back of the net in the 58th minute. Chhangte then scored in the 74th minute to put the game to bed.
Sharing his thoughts in the press conference, Buckingham said, “I’m happy with the result and the performance. It’s about trying to get better in every game and we’ve shown different ways that we can play. To have four goals is very good. But that won’t be the case every week and we won’t get carried away with results and performances. We go to Guwahati in eight days and we got to take it one game at a time. And the players that we have are very humble and grounded. Overall, I am very happy. And the clean sheet as well, which is the third of the season.”
Mumbai City has won four matches while they have drawn three. Thus, the Islanders are still unbeaten in the tournament as they have gotten off to a fine start. Buckingham added the team is reaping rewards for their hard work.
Summing up his team’s performance so far, Buckingham said, “I keep coming back to the AFC Champions League, our approach and how important it was to our team and club. We have had a very small turnover of players. We’ve changed four foreing players. Sanjeev (Stalin) and Bhaskar (Roy) are the other domestic players that we brought in. To retain that core and to have 14 months of working with this group, they’re very clever in what we do and how we do it. What we are trying to see now is consistency to what we do and how we do it. That’s the pleasing thing for me. The Durand Cup 2022, we wanted to be as successful as we could and we made the final. We couldn’t quite get the trophy, but we also used that competition to make sure that we start the Hero ISL season as well as we could. Looking back across at what we planned and what we wanted, we certainly achieved that. It’s important that we consolidate it (on this unbeaten run) and we move forward.”
Mumbai City FC will look to continue the good show in the upcoming matches. Mumbai will next lock horns against NorthEast United FC at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati on 25th November.
