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Bengaluru FC head coach Gerard Zaragoza expressed delight after the Blues got back on the winning ways with a dominating victory over Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Despite Albino Gomes saving Sunil Chhetri's penalty early on and Pratik Chaudhari's goal-line clearance denying the Bengaluru FC forward's attempt in the 29th minute, the Blues broke the deadlock at the stroke of half-time thanks to Edgar Mendez's clinical finishing and presence of mind. Alberto Noguera doubled the lead for the hosts with his brilliant free-kick goal from a distance of over 40 yards. Notably, this was the second-longest such goal by any player in the league after Edu Bedia. The Spanish midfielder, who snatched a ball from Lazar Cirkovic, further extended the lead with his composed finish inside the opponent's box in the 82nd minute. Following this crucial home victory, the Blues found themselves back on the winning track, snapping their six-match winless streak. Zaragoza commended his players' all-round performance and showered praise on his players' resilient effort to secure three crucial points at home. "We are too satisfied and too happy, first of all for my family, because they suffered a lot. Then for the players and their families, because they suffered a lot. But we suffered because we deserved it more," he said in the post-match press conference as quoted by an ISL press release. "During these six games, of course, you can win, you can draw, you can lose. It is football. But one point of 18 was not fair for us. I am happy for all of us, and the thing that we need to do is go game by game, more than ever," he added. Despite Gurpreet Singh Sandhu making a strong start in the league with five consecutive clean sheets in the opening games, Bengaluru FC failed to register a single clean sheet in their following 14 games. Zaragoza shuffled his last line of defence for the first time this season as Lalthuammawia Ralte found himself back in the starting eleven for the Blues after 1445 days. While quizzed about Ralte's performance against Jamshedpur FC and Sandhu's exclusion, the Bengaluru FC head coach answered. "I'm too happy. Gurpreet (Singh Sandhu) needed this rest. I think that Gurpreet, in the first seven matches of the league, was the top player of the season, not the goalkeeper, player of the season. And then he made some mistakes, like the other ones. And all of them I put on the bench, and then they returned better. Now here it is the same," said the coach. "We wanted him to rest a little bit. But also, Ralte did well. We returned to the clean sheet. And now let's see. But I'm happy for both of them," he further added. The Blues generated numerous attacking moves throughout the game with Chhetri, Noguera, Mendez, and Ryan Williams up front. The Spanish head coach believed they could have scored more goals if they had capitalized on their chances. "I think we played better in Jamshedpur than today. Today we could finish 7-0. And in Jamshedpur also," he opined. "But in Jamshedpur, we did not enter the second goal. We only need to go and see the highlights. We could win there. Easy 0-4. But we were 0-1. And we received two goals from minute 85 (84) or something like that. I think that the players deserved this. I am happy for them. Let us go," Zaragoza signed off. (ANI)
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