Odisha FC head coach Sergio Lobera was delighted with the win as his team beat Hyderabad FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

Roy Krishna opened the scoring by connecting with an Amey Ranawade pass from close range. Minutes before the end of the first half, center-back Mourtada Fall doubled the lead with a strong header off a set-piece, sending the Kalinga Warriors into half-time with a solid 2-0 lead. To conclude the match on a good note, Krishna scored his second of the night in the 95th minute, ensuring his team a comfortable 3-0 win at home. 

Odisha FC's fifth win of the season saw them climb up to the fourth spot in the standings. Besides securing a spot in the knockout stages of the AFC Cup, Sergio Lobera's side have now secured 17 points from nine games. Lobera was satisfied with his recent team’s form but believes there is still scope for improvement. 

“It's important to be unbeaten during long periods. To get good results is our target. We are working for that. But also, it's very important to be critical with ourselves, and we need to improve. We need to continue improving. We need to continue growing because, it's not (that) everything (is) amazing,” stated Lobera in the post-match press conference.

“I am very happy because it's a big effort from the players to achieve this,” he added. 

The Spanish tactician believes that the availability of the full squad is crucial to the team as it could have prevented their players from getting tired during the second half. 

He shared, “Obviously, as a coach, if you have the full squad, you have more options during the game. You can do substitutions in a specific position. For example, today, Roy, and in the second half, we have some players (who were) very tired now. And I think there are two things. We are tired because we are coming from a big game, in the last game in AFC Cup, and also we need to manage better the situation when we are tired. We need to keep possession of the ball. We need to kill the game. We have clear chances to score the third goal. And when you didn't do this, sometimes we can suffer in the last period of the game.”

Emphasising the need to kill the game in due time by scoring more goals to avoid any last-minute turnarounds, Lobera said, “I think we need to improve scoring the chances we have and also managing better results. We are strong with the possession of the ball and we need to have the possession of the ball in the opposite half. And today during the second half we didn't do this.”

The 46-year-old is grateful to his fans for giving them the support when they needed it the most and hopes to see the same in their upcoming fixtures. 

“Today, during some periods in the second half, we needed power. And the power was coming from the stands. Today was amazing. I think I feel the fans give to us a lot of things in the moment we needed more. And I am very happy for them. And (I hope they) keep going,” Lobera concluded.

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