ISL 2021-22: It was really pleasing with the way we went about our business – Mumbai City FC’s Des Buckingham

Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham was delighted with the performance of his team after they defeated FC Goa by 2-0 in the 103rd match of the ongoing Hero Indian Super League at the Athletic Stadium, Bambolim on Saturday. It was the ninth win of the season for the defending champions and it helps them stay in the semifinal race.

Mehtab scored the opening goal in the 35th minute of the game to give the lead to the Islanders. Subsequently, Diego Mauricio put the game to bed in the 86th minute of the match as he scored the second goal in the 86th minute.

Buckingham said it is important to focus on their own matches and deliver their best in the rest of the games.

He said in the post-match press conference, “I didn’t know the result of the other game before we kicked off, it’s not important for me what other teams are doing, the main thing is that we focus on what we were doing. And tonight, it was important that we come away with a win, and not only have we done that we’ve come away with a clean sheet”.

Mumbai City FC took seven shots on target but only had 39% of the possession. Buckingham was happy with the way the team defended especially in the second half of the game.

Buckingham added, “FC Goa is a wonderful team, they play some good possession-based football. And we knew that obviously they are out of semi-finals and they’d give games to two players that maybe have not played so much. That’s always a challenge in itself because they want to come in and prove that they’re capable of planning this level. It was very pleasing with how we went about our business, especially with the goal in the first half and what we showed in the second half was a fantastic way of defending, we really kept ther out, we knew they’d have the ball. Then for Diego to come on as the change and have an impact to secure the game 2-0 that was very pleasing”.

In fact, FC Goa had 61% of possession but they only could take three shots on target. Buckingham said that the team needed to be smart in their game and they were able to bring their best.

He said, “Yeah, it was. We know how Goa like to play. I think in most of the games, if not all the games this season, they’ve had more possession. We needed to be smart about how we set up. I was very happy with how we defended especially more so in the second half. We got our goal at halftime and as I said, we should have had a couple more. We needed to be smart when we won the ball. And for me, we’ve won four games in five now, we’ve got a very young side”.

Mumbai City will next face Kerala Blasters on Wednesday at the Tilak Maidan Stadium.