ISL 2017-18: Mumbai City FC’s Alexandre Guimaraes - We knew Goa wouldn’t be satisfied with the equalizer

Mumbai City FC did the double over FC Goa and coach Alexandre Guimaraes was pleased with the effort put in by his players. The Islanders registered their first win in 2018 as they edged past FC Goa, who were down to ten after Seriton Fernandes was sent-off.

Guimaraes mentioned that it was part of their plan to allow Goa to see more off the ball and hit them on the counter.

“We knew that we had to manage our rhythm in this kind of temperature through the 90 minutes. Though they won the first half, we knew that were still in the game and knowing that they will try to score more and continue to play open, the game plan was to take advantage with that. I'm very happy that the players stuck to the plan and finally we won. It's not easy to win here in Goa.

“Because of the way they play, I knew also that they won't be satisfied with the goal (equaliser). Knowing that some chances would happen, we tried to hit on the counter,” he said.

Guimaraes was displeased with the antics of Manuel Lanzarote and they were engaged in a verbal duel in the second half of the game. The Mumbai City coach was asked on what was being discussed.

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Here it's the same. What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch,” he replied.

ISL

Guimaraes pointed that his side are back in contention for a berth in the top four and they now have a better head-to-head record against FC Goa.

“The win is very important. We knew that we were going to play against a very good team who has so many combinations to try to penetrate the opponent's defence. The win puts us back in the fight to be in the top four. This is a huge push for our confidence for my players.

“I am feeling very well (to be on the winning side) because we beat them twice. You never know what can happen in the end in the fight for the fourth place. Now we have the (head-to-head) advantage in case. That's also very important. We won against an opponent who is closest to us,” he explained.

Guimaraes acknowledged that the game opened up for his team after Fernandes got his second booking a few minutes into the second half.

“We knew that in the second half we can have a situation where we can control the game. As soon as we recognized the situation after the red card, we made some modifications and we looked for the possibility to find them (FC Goa) not well positioned,” he elaborated on his tactics.

Lucian Goian and Leo Costa were not part of the matchday squad and Guimaraes hopes that the duo will soon be back in action.

“Those two guys are important for us. They want to play but we still have too many games. If we took the chance to play them, maybe they would be out for more games. Fortunately, the players who came in their place did well. I will have to have a meeting with my medical staff to see on Tuesday to see how it goes,” signed off Guimaraes.