Gerard Zaragoza
Credit: Special Arrangement
The fierce desire to fight hard had embodied Bengaluru FC all this season. It stood out again during their win against FC Goa in the first leg of the ISL semifinal on Wednesday.
With that result, BFC head coach Gerard Zaragoza scripted history by becoming just the third Indian Super League manager to win his first two games in the Playoffs after Simon Grayson and Petr Kratky.
Zaragoza credited preparation and mindset after the Blues clinched a clinical 2-0 victory against Goa in front of nearly 20,000 fans at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
“Before the game against Mumbai City FC, during those 10 days, in the training, the team showed this playoff mood, and you could see that we are confident,” Zaragoza said in the post-match press conference.
Prior to the Goa fixture, BFC handed Mumbai City FC a humiliating 5-0 loss and had punched their semifinal ticket.
“The game against Mumbai gave us this mentality to say we need to enter the game like this because we know that FC Goa is one of the best teams in this league, and we needed to enter in the mood that we entered. Finally, I think that we deserved this win, and we could even score more goals, and we will surely fight in Goa,” he added.
Speaking on travelling away for the second leg, Zaragoza acknowledged Goa’s consistent performances during the league phase and said they were the deserving second-leg hosts.
“They took 10 points more than us and they deserve to play the second leg of the semifinal at home. However, we wanted to play at home, it does not matter if it is the first or the second leg, we want to play in front of our people, and I hope this is not the last game we play at home,” he said.
While the BFC’s attack took all the headlines with their sublime finishing, an all-Indian defence of Namgyal Bhutia, Chinglensana Singh, Rahul Bheke and Roshan Singh came in for praise for forging a technically sound backline.
“The reality is that they are in an amazing, amazing moment. Bhutia today, Man of the Match, Roshan, and the two center-backs, they were very good. When you have people like this, it allows you to put one foreigner more up. I hope that they continue like this,” he concluded.
Bengaluru FC will travel to Goa to play the second leg of the semifinal on Sunday, April 6 at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.