Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham urged his team to focus on their remaining match as a 3-1 defeat to Kerala Blasters FC in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) Match 62 at the Tilak Maidan Stadium, Vasco da Gama, Goa on Wednesday took their semi-final qualification fate out of their own hands.

Alvaro Vazquez netted a brace and Sahal Abdul Samad found the back of the net to guide Kerala Blasters to an important win. Diego Mauricio scored the consolation goal for Mumbai City FC.

Match Report: Kerala Blasters FC ease past Mumbai City FC to take a giant step towards semi-finals

With this win, KBFC taken a massive leap towards play-offs qualification while Mumbai's chances looks bleak now after this defeat.

Buckingham addressed the media after the game.

Here are some excerpts from his press conference:

How hard does this result makes for your top four qualifications?

Yeah, it takes out of our hands. We come into this game knowing that if we won the game we qualify. We also knew if we got a point it takes it to the final one. So now it's not in our hands. So, we just need to now focus on beating Hyderabad FC and hope the FC Goa can can do us a favor against Kerala Blasters.

Was the late first half goal a major blow as heading into the dressing room 1-0 would have been easier to strategize in the second half?

The major blow for us was the penalty that wasn't given to us earlier in the half. I think you get that decision, we had a lot of this year where they haven't been given. You go 1-0 and it changes the total outcome of the game and that's taking nothing away from Kerala Blasters. KBFC won the game and won it well, 3-1. We tried having to go in second half we changed a few things and again, it was a mistake that cost us a third goal and almost sealed the result.

You changed the formation in the second half. Was it a part of plan B?

No, just looking at as we're 2-0 down like you've mentioned, and looking at where we thought we could hurt them. We felt that we didn't need back four. We felt we could get more players in the attacking third and we chose to go with a three at the back. And I thought we played very well in second half, that they never had one shot and that’s not even the shot, It's a mistake that got them the third goal. We need to do better in the final third with our decisions. But in terms of performance second half I was happy with that I just think the penalty at the start could have changed the outcome but again that takes nothing away from Kerala Blasters.

You had a quite long chat with Kerala Blasters coach both before and after the game. What was it about ?

It's just mutual respect, when you've got an excellent coach and an excellent person in Ivan, who led this team and led it very well. If you get the opportunity to speak with those types of people, you know, and it's not just Ivan and we try and do that across the leaque. I spent some time with Owen Coyle and Marquez. You know, when you get chance to speak to those people, especially when you're out of your bubble very few times. It's always nice to speak to those people.