Kerala Blasters FC head coach Mikael Stahre expressed disbelief over his team's ability to score against FC Goa as they lost by a 0-1 scoreline in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Thursday.

It was an eventful outing in Kochi where both sides were engaged in an end-to-end battle from the offset. However, Boris Singh opened the scoring for the visitors at the stroke of the first half, which ended up being the decider.

With Noah Sadaoui, Adrian Luna, and substitute Kwame Peprah up front, the Blasters demonstrated numerous offensive moves throughout the second half, but a resilient FC Goa defense line prevented them from bagging the equaliser. Despite the hosts creating relentless pressure in the dying stages of the final half, Stahre’s men failed to convert their chances as the Yellow Army succumbed to their fifth defeat of the ongoing season.

The Kerala Blasters FC head coach acknowledged that his players lost their rhythm in the final phase of the opening half, which caused them to concede the goal. However, Stahre opined that his players started the game on a positive note by implementing their pre-match plannings.

“I think that we came out of the first part of the game really strong. I think we played exactly like the game planned. I think in general we controlled the game well,” he said in the post-match press conference.

“After 25-30 minutes approximately, we lost a little bit of the structure. We lost the ball too easily. We also interchanged too much in our positioning. When we lost the ball, we were not completely in the right position to defend. In that phase, we also conceded that goal,” he continued.

Singh scored the solitary goal of the match in the 40th minute, where the midfielder’s powerful strike from the right flank beat Sachin Suresh in the near post. While quizzed about the Gaurs’ opener, the head coach remarked, “That goal was out of the blue, actually. That's not a chance from my perspective. 99 times out of 100, Sachin (Suresh) will save that ball.”

“I think that we lost a little bit of the energy in the last part of the first half. We lost the momentum we got in the first part of the game,” he further added.

This was the first time this season that the Blasters failed to score in a game. This was their fourth home defeat of the season.

“For me, I'm shocked that we didn't score this evening. Look at the pressure we had at the end of the game. What kind of situation we created. It was absolutely not good for us. We can't lose these kinds of games. It's impossible in the future,” Stahre remarked while speaking on their attacking moves in the second half.

“Technically, we created chances enough. But we were not sharp enough in the final third. We used to be sharp in the final third and score goals. But fortunately, not tonight,” he signed off.

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