Panagiotis Dilmperis says team lacked confidence after loss against East Bengal FC

Punjab FC head coach Panagiotis Dilmperis admitted his team lacked confidence after a 1-3 loss against East Bengal FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi on Saturday in the ongoing Indian Super League.

Dimitrios Diamantakos scored the opening goal for East Bengal FC in the 15th minute. After the first-half break, Naorem Mahesh Singh doubled the team’s lead whereas Chungnunga scored the third goal for the visitors in the 54th minute.

Argentine Ezequiel Vidal got one back for the Shers but it was not enough to stage a comeback. The home team had 60% possession but could only take four shots on target.

“Today we have two different parts in the game. In the first half, we had a huge problem. We lost balls in the final third easily. So we didn’t create chances because we didn’t hold the ball forward. That was a huge problem. When we played a 3-5-2, the team found a different tempo in the game, more aggressive, with more speed, and a more vertical game, and we transferred the ball into the box a lot of times. But even then, we lost chances. We should have scored earlier,” Panagiotis Dilmperis said in the post-match press conference.

Dilmperis added that a lack of confidence among the players is leading to the team’s downfall.

“If we had scored a second goal earlier, I think they would have been really stressed, and we would have managed to score a third goal and at least tie this game. The problem, in my opinion, is psychological confidence. There’s fear a lot of times. When the opponent manages to score this way again—we discussed it yesterday—we were talking about all these things. If you go this way, then you’re scared. Fear is not a good advisor in a game. It brings panic, and a lot of times it leads to wrong actions. This is what happened,” he stated.

Punjab FC will next take on FC Goa at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi on Thursday.