A goal from Erik Paartalu rescued a point for Bengaluru FC in their match against Odisha FC in Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2020-21 at the Fatorda Stadium on Sunday. Stuart Baxter’s side took the lead early in the first half and looked on course for a win at one time before Paartalu’s equaliser late in the game. At the post-match press conference, the Odisha head coach expressed his frustration at his team’s inability to close out their matches.

“I am frustrated with many things; our inability to put the game to bed, to defend the 90 minutes without making elementary mistakes. In set-plays, Bengaluru decide many games. If you look at the game, that was where their main threat came from. We gave away silly freekicks and throw-ins,” Baxter said after the match.

Eight minutes into the game, Diego Mauricio put the Bhubaneswar-based club ahead. Following that, Odisha goalkeeper Arshdeep Singh made many important saves to keep his side in the game. However, it was a set-piece that eventually earned the Blues a point and the English head coach hopes that his team learns from their mistakes. 

“The team has to learn from it. That is the next step in their development. We are playing well enough now on a regular basis to win games... All of their chances came from long balls and free-kicks. We could have won the game playing the way we did,” said the Odisha head coach.

Watch Stuart Baxter's Post-Match Press conference here:

Meanwhile, Bengaluru interim head coach Naushad Moosa said his players were disappointed with the result. “Players are more frustrated than me. They have been trying hard. If you see the second half, we created a lot of scoring opportunities. We need to keep our heads high and keep moving. We need to stay positive.”

Towards the end of the game, the Blues came close to a winning goal and Moosa believes that his team should have won the game. “I don't want to believe that we are not being creative. Towards the end of the game, the way we created scoring opportunities, we should have won the game. But yes, we need to work more on it and we have to work on being compact defensively as well,” he said.

Bengaluru would have looked to capitalise on the goalless draw between Jamshedpur FC and Hyderabad FC earlier in the day but Moosa is still confident about making it to the semi-finals. “Hero ISL is an open league. If we had won today, we would have got closer to Hyderabad. We have seven games in hand, we can always be positive and think about getting into the top four,” he said.

Watch Naushad Moosa's Post-Match Press conference here: