East Bengal FC head coach Oscar Bruzon said it’s a pity that they missed so many chances after a 2-1 loss against Odisha FC at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar in the Indian Super League on Tuesday. This was the sixth loss of the season for the Red and Gold brigade and they are yet to win their first point.
Roy Krishna scored the opening goal for the Kalinga Warriors but the visitors equalized when Diamantakos equalized in the stoppage time before half-time through a spot kick. However, Mourtada Fall scored the match-winning goal in the 69th minute.
Meanwhile, East Bengal FC took four shots on target and six off target but could not grab their chances against the hosts.
“We did a beautiful job in the game, creating most of the chances, making Odisha FC have a lot of difficulty with the connection of the players in front. They could not connect a run of three or four passes, so at some point, they were just waiting for our mistake to run counterattacks,” Bruzon said during the post-match press conference.
“Unfortunately, in one counter, with something that we had been working on during the week, Roy Krishna, with his speed, was smart enough to find the interval between our left back and centre back and capitalize to get one goal,” he added.
“The game was totally ours. It’s a pity that we forgave or missed so many chances, and the moment they got the 1-0, it became much more difficult for us because they slowed the tempo of the game. They were just trying to, yeah, to put us to sleep,” Bruzon continued.
East Bengal FC will now take part in the AFC Challenge League and will make their ISL return on November 9. Bruzon feels this will be a much-needed break for his players.
“No doubts that the break is going to be good for the team to adapt to the ideas of the new coach. But I didn’t want to wait until the break. We need immediate results. It’s already a quarter of the ISL, six games gone, and we have zero points,” he said.
“So the only way to try to qualify for the final stages is by finishing in the top six, and to finish in the top six, you probably need to win ten games. So if you make the calculation, out of 18 games, you probably need to win ten (matches) if you want to qualify. So we are already in a countdown, and the season has just started,” Bruzon opined.
East Bengal FC will next take on derby rivals Mohammedan SC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata on November 9.
