Mumbai City FC returned to the top of the 2020-21 Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) standings after a 2-0 win over Kerala Blasters FC at the GMC Stadium in Bambolim on Saturday. Adam le Fondre opened the scoring for the Islanders early on and playmaker Hugo Boumous doubled their advantage in the 11th minute. Mumbai’s head coach Sergio Lobera, though, wasn’t pleased with his side’s performance after going 2-0 up in the game.

“The first few minutes are very important for us. We spoke about this before the start of the game and I was very happy with the start of the game but after we scored two goals the situation changed and I’m not very happy about the way we managed being 2-0 up because they had chances from our mistakes, which gave them a lot of motivation. We needed to work better after scoring the two goals,” he said at the post-match press conference.

Lobera went on to stress the importance of killing games off. “It’s very important for us [to finish our chances] because at 3-0 the game would have been over, but we gave them opportunities [to come back into the game]. Now the focus is on the next game and we have just two days to recover as a team. We need to work hard on recovery after today’s game but I’m an optimist and I’m very happy with my players,” he said.

The Spaniard also praised his custodian and Hero of the Match Amrinder Singh. “I am very happy with Amrinder. I’m very happy with his performance. Today we won the game 2-0 but they had two or three clear chances and Amrinder worked very well,” Lobera said.

Another player who has shone under Lobera this season is Bipin Singh and he explained why. “The most important thing is confidence. Bipin is a very good player like our other players. We have a very good squad, very good Indian players, very good foreign players and the most important thing is to work well as a team and then it’s possible for individuals to shine,” the 43-year-old said.

Watch Sergio Lobera’s Post-Match Press conference here:

Meanwhile, Kerala’s head coach Kibu Vicuna bemoaned his side’s inability to make the most of their chances. “Today we lost the game in the first 11 minutes. We cannot concede such goals against a fantastic team like Mumbai City. We are conceding but not scoring. Today, we had very good chances to score and come back into the match,” he said.

Even though he was pleased with some of the chances that his side created, Vicuna made it clear that they must improve their finishing. “The good news is that we created many chances against a very complete team like Mumbai City, but we didn’t score... We created chances from set-pieces and by pressing the ball. But we have to score and need to continue working on that aspect of the game,” he said.

Watch Kibu Vicuna’s Post-Match Press conference here: