The ISL defending champions Mumbai City FC were knocked out in the ongoing Hero Indian Super League 2021-22 after they lost their last league stage match against Hyderabad FC by 2-1 in the 107th match of the season at the PJN Stadium, Fatorda on Saturday. The team’s head coach Des Buckingham admitted that they conceded two sloppy goals.
Rohit Danu scored in the 14th minute of the game for Hyderabad whereas Joel Chianese found the back of the net in the 41st minute to give a 2-0 lead to his team. Mourtada Fall scored in the 76th minute of the game but Hyderabad did well to keep the opposition at bay.
Des Buckingham said in the post-match press conference, “You always have a hope of a comeback if you’re behind. So, yes I did. We give away two sloppy goals. First for the set-piece and the second one is just a long ball down the field which we should be dealt better. We can’t give away those types of goals. We played some good build-up football from the back but we just need to take a little bit more care and in the final third to make sure that when we do get opportunities we take them.”
Mumbai played some new players as Chhangte and Rahul Bheke were suspended. Buckingham added that they had no option other than to give other players a chance in a must-win game against the Nizams.
Buckingham added, “Yeah, we had to make changes because we had two players suspended in Chhangte and Rahul Beke. That opened up opportunities for others and then we felt that after the last couple of games we could try a couple of different things. We have done that this evening. When you’ve got a squad of 27 players, we assess the players on a daily basis at training and we’ll continue to do that. Those that perform, get the opportunity on the stage.”
The Islanders could not come up with a collective effort in the last couple of matches. Buckingham revealed they will review their performance at the end of the season.
He concluded, “Yeah, we’ll do a review at the end of the season. The season only just finished for us in terms of the league. We’ve still got the Champions League. We’ll have some time off now a couple of days before we regroup and come back together to go and challenge. What’s going to be a very tough group in Riyadh for the Champions League but we need to get ready for that.”
Mumbai City will look to bounce back stronger in the Champions League.
