Breaching the fortress at FC Goa is never an easy feat, but FC Pune City did just that today as they secured a 2-0 away win at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa on Saturday. The shift in tactics to play a more counter-attacking form of football did not go unnoticed as both Emiliano Alfaro and Jonatan Lucca took advantage of the same to score past the Gaurs. Stallions’ midfielder Adil Khan revealed that it was indeed a planned-out strategy when indiansuperleague.com caught up with him post the encounter. Here are the excerpts.

Congratulations! What are your thoughts on the game?

Thank you very much! We have done exactly what we wanted to do. We stayed back because our plan was to stay back and play on the counter-attacks because we were playing an away game and FC Goa is a tough team. They have a very tough attack and have scored many goals, especially here. We played defensively and went for counter-attacks.

What was the half-time talk from your coach?

The team talk was the same. We waited and waited for our opportunities and we got an opportunity in the first half, but couldn’t score a goal. But in the second half, we did it so that’s really a plus point for us.

What did you make of Goa’s defence?

It is not that (the defence’s fault). I always say that the team that performs on the given day wins, so we cannot say that this team is weak with defence, and that team is weak with attack. All the players are selected from the drafts and Indian players are doing good, so I do not think that any team have any weak points. On the given day, if you make any mistakes, you concede goals.

What are your views on Goa’s sedulous attack?

It was difficult because I always said that they have a very good attack. Controlling them was a bit difficult, but we played and did a good job as a team, and got the three points.