Odisha FC earned just their second win in Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 after a brilliant 3-2 success over Hyderabad FC at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. Carlos Delgado, Xisco Hernandez and Martin Guedes were on the scoresheet for the hosts, who after taking a two-goal first-half lead, conceded twice in the second half and endured a nervy finish at the end.

At the post-match press conference, a delighted Odisha head coach Josep Gombau shared his thoughts on the result with which they end their stay in Pune, he said, “We played three games here. We had one win, one draw and one loss. I think that maybe last week we deserved more and this week, I think, we deserved to win.”

The Spaniard then analysed the fixture and commented, “I think that the first half belonged to us. We scored two goals. In the second half, in the very beginning, we had three chances to go 3-0 up. If we had scored, it would have been game over. After that, there was a penalty and a red card, which makes it 2-1. We scored to make it 3-1, and after 3-2, it wasn’t the best finish to the game. But at the end, we won and we deserved to get this win. I am happy with the goals because it builds confidence. We worked hard and we did quite well.”

Odisha’s second goal on the night was a brilliant move that culminated with a terrific finish from Xisco. The Spaniard revealed his thoughts on the goal and claimed, “The second goal was a good action. It was a good finish, one-two with Xisco and Jerry (Mawihmingthanga). I think it was very good. And even in the second half, we had the same action. Xisco had the option to pass to Aridane (Santana), and maybe we could have scored. But I’m happy. It is important to us. We played eight games all away from our home. And now we are going to Goa for our next game. And finally, in the 10^th game of the league, we will have our first home game.”

When asked whether he was looking closely at the top four, the 43-year-old answered, “I think that this league is very equal. We lost three games and in all these games, the difference was one goal. We drew a lot of games, which we should have won. We lost games which, I feel, we could have won. I think we need to go game by game. We have 10 more games in front of us. We need to play these 10 games the best we can, and after that, we will see where we are.”

Finally, the Odisha head coach looked ahead to the upcoming Goa fixture and shared his delight at the break afforded to his side. “We need to work a lot. Goa is a very good team. We are playing away. We will miss Vinit (Rai) because of the red card. We need to prepare well for the game. We have time, which is good, to prepare for the game, and this is good for us,” Gombau said.

Read the Match Report here.