Hyderabad FC head coach Manolo Marquez stated that his team fully deserved to win the game, as his side scored two goals past East Bengal FC to secure the three points and go top of the points table in matchweek 10 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 at G.M.C Balayogi Athletic Stadium, in Hyderabad, on Friday.

Mohammad Yasir and Javier Siverio were on the scoresheet for the home team, with goals in both halves of the fixture. Marquez stated how the match was a fair event till the first half, but the changes in the second half with the trio of Sahil Tavora, Javier Siverio, and Borja Herrera coming on and linking up for the second goal.

The Spaniard also spoke on the importance of Gurmeet Singh in the team - who made crucial saves to help the side keep a clean sheet - and praised his qualities that have been on display because of his consistent hard work throughout last season despite suffering an injury.

The head coach addressed the media in the official post-match press conference.

Here are the excerpts from Marquez's press conference:  

What are your initial thoughts about the two-nil win over East Bengal FC?

I think we deserved the win after 90-98 minutes, but it's true that we scored the first goal at the moment when nothing was happening. We didn't find the correct way to arrive in the East Bengal FC box, their defense was in order and they were very dangerous on the counter-attack, with long balls to Cleiton (Silva), Semboi (Haokip) and both wingers, VP Suhair and Naorem (Singh). It was 1-0 at half-time and we managed some moments well in the second half, not with very brilliant football. I think we missed clear chances. I think the score is fair. The first half was equal, and maybe, a draw was fair (for both teams at that moment). 

Gurmeet (Singh) made an important save towards the end of the first half in a one-on-one against Cleiton Silva. How important do you think it was going into half-time?

The goalkeeper is always important. We know we signed him, it is easy to speak now but when we signed him last season, we knew we had Kattimani (Laxmikant) and we knew Gurmeet had good performances with NorthEast United FC. He is very young and a very good goalkeeper. It's true that Kattimani was maybe not the best but one of the best goalkeepers last season, but the good thing for Gurmeet is that he kept training hard.

In the preseason he got a meniscus injury, he had to go to Mumbai for surgery, and now he has recovered and shown the quality he has. We have good goalkeepers, we changed the goalkeeper after the injury to Kattimani, Anuj (Kumar) played but if Gurmeet was available, he had to play because he is the second-choice goalkeeper. Anuj had a good performance against Jamshedpur FC but when Gurmeet recovered, he had to play.

You made two changes after half-time with Borja (Herrera) and Siverio (Javier) along with Tavora (Sahil) coming in. What do you think about the tempo of the game after that?

When you win it's very easy to speak, sometimes when you make the change and you lose, then you are questioned. You have to take decisions at the moment and I discussed it with my coaching staff and we decided first to bring in Javier Siverio. I'm very happy for him because he deserved to score finally. Afterwards, with Tavora and Borja, we controlled the situation and when we scored the second goal, we were happy because again, Rohit Danu (was) not playing too many minutes, but he's a player with great quality and we will need him for sure during the second leg.

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Hyderabad FC2022-2023 Match 47,Hyderabad FC vs East Bengal FC