Pune FC went down 0-2 to Bengaluru FC in an I-League Round-18 encounter at the Balewadi Stadium on Tuesday.
Speaking at the post-match Press Conference, Pune FC Coach Karim Bencherifa discussed the game at length while highlighting the importance of giving confidence to the youngsters.
When asked about the game, Coach Bencherifa said, “I am very proud of every single player today. When you lose a game, as a coach you are sometimes disappointed with the players, feeling that they didn’t do a good job. But today was a good game. Despite all the difficulties we are facing, the boys put on a brave performance. I always highlighted that for all teams, the goals are being scored around the start of the game, end of the first half, start of the second half and the end of the game. We too have conceded more goals in the last ten minutes while also scoring more during that time. Having conceded the goal early on, it knocked us off. We could have come back and we tried hard but again we conceded in the last five minutes of the half. From there on it became very difficult.”
Elaborating further he added, “I think we lost points because of the costly mistakes. We made few mistakes but they were very costly against a good team like Bengaluru FC. I felt that even till the last minute, we could’ve got something out of the game. We had about 25 shots on the goal with nine on target, but we couldn’t score those important goals and they did, so that’s the difference between the two teams for me.”
“I am very proud of the team. I have never talked about the title, but Bengaluru FC in my opinion have a chance to win because of the quality of the players and the bench strength they have. We are in a building process for a good team. Every game, we line up with about five Under-23 players and today it was no different and I am very proud of these boys. We want to finish as high as possible. And I think Pune FC deserves to be the up there with the best with the brand of football that we play. There is no other team which is promoting youngsters like us and giving them the chance and confidence to shine. We even have some Under-19 players who are playing in the squad and have also registered a few players who are in the Under-19 team currently on the I-League squad. So we should not panic and look at immediate success. Sometimes it takes time to build a strong side and be consistent,” he concluded.
