Carles Cuadrat demands ‘more’ from Indian strikers

Bengaluru FC have only themselves to blame as they missed a host of opportunities after having taken an early lead against Hyderabad FC.

The Blues dominated the proceedings for most parts of the game but some wasteful finishing from Bengaluru FC front-line didn’t help their cause.

“I feel frustrated and my players feel frustrated because it was a good opportunity to get three points. We were not good enough to increase the goal difference and when you are just one-goal up, these things happen. I have to congratulate Hyderabad. They were trying hard to equalise and we were not able to stop them from scoring,” said Carles Cuadrat.

While Bengaluru FC didn’t take the chances which came their way, the refereeing decisions once again hogged the limelight. The Blues should have been awarded a spot-kick when Harmanjot Khabra’s cut-back inside the box was handled by Gurtej Singh. Also Marcelinho’s dangerous tackle on Raphael Augusto only saw the referee book him with a yellow card, much to the dismay of those watching the game.

“I feel frustrated but not shocked. I have been in the football industry for all my life and so I have seen that kind of situations. Sometimes it works for you sometimes it works against you. You can see Hyderabad lost the game in the extra time last week and now they get one point in the extra time. Everybody is professional, not the referees.

“Referees are not professional; the referees are a disaster. It was a penalty and a red card for Marcelinho. We are always talking about the referees,” he gave vent to his frustration.

Bengaluru have only scored six goals in six matches with three being scored by Sunil Chhetri. The rest of the attacking contingent have struggled to convert which has seen them draw four matches this season.

“We have the national team strikers playing and still we could score just one goal. That came in transition because the other team was not in a good position. So it is something that India have to improve. We had Manuel (Onwu) injured and so we had three Indians upfront. They tried their best but we are not finishing,” he signed off.