FC Goa’s head coach Carlos Pena was satisfied after his team played a 1-1 draw against Odisha FC at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar on Monday. The Gaurs got off to a dream start as Noah Sadaoui scored as ealry as in the second minute of the game.
However, the home team was able to equalize after a brilliant free-kick from their talisman Diego Mauricio. Both teams couldn’t score in the second half as they shared the spoils. FC Goa took a total of four shots on target but could only convert one of them.
“We got a point which is very difficult to get in Odisha against a very good team and in a difficult stadium. We are very happy because I have a feeling that we could’ve done more. The second half was completely ours and we had chances to get the three points but we tried and got one point. We give value to this point and we move to think about the next match,” Pena said in the official post-match press conference.
In fact, the visitors had a golden opportunity in the last 20 minutes as the home team was reduced to 10-man. Pena added his team dominated in the second half but could not capitalize to seal off the game.
“We tried, we tried to put more players in attack and tried to open up the pitch. We absolutely dominated the second half but we needed to be aggressive in front of the goal. I value this one point because I said before the game it’s very difficult to get even one point in these last games. We will try to get three points in the next match at home,” Pena said.
Meanwhile, FC Goa will face a tough challenge as they will host the table-toppers Mumbai City FC in their next match.
“We are going to recover my players, they have done a great effort. We have four days to prepare for the next match. We will try to arrive in the best condition against Mumbai City FC, a good opponent but we will play at home and we’ll try to get the three points,” Pena concluded.
FC Goa will take on Mumbai City FC on Sunday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa.
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