Finishing second in the AFC Champions League group is a huge achievement: Mumbai City FC’s Des Buckingham

Mumbai City FC head coach Des Buckingham reckons finishing second in the AFC Champions League group is a huge achievement for his club. The Islanders defeated Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya by 1-0 at the King Fahd International Stadium on Tuesday night.

Diego Mauricio scored for Mumbai in the 31st minute of the game to give a 1-0 lead to his team. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya dominated the game with 67% possession but the Islanders were able to keep them at bay defensively.

In fact, Mumbai City FC had defeated the same team by 2-1 on 11th April. With two wins, three losses, and one draw, Mumbai City FC finished in the second place in the Group B of the 2022-23 season of the AFC Champions League with seven points.

Reflecting on his team’s another historic win, Des Buckingham said in the post-match press conference, “It was a very challenging game. And we knew it would be because they’re a wonderful team. It was the first time we played them to play six games in nineteen days, but to come away with a win and to the show the way that the players have played in the last six games, not just tonight, to come away from the Champions League, picking up seven points, scoring more goals than we ever have done. And to finish second in the group is a huge achievement, both for this football club and for football in India.”

The Briton gave his gratitude to the team’s owners for their ever-lasting support. The team’s gaffer also talked about the strategy which his team adopted against the difficult opposition.

He said, “I must thank the club and our CEO for allowing us to go to Abu Dhabi at the end of the season. We spent two and a half weeks in an account there to prepare ourselves as well as we could do for this tournament. That can give us a lot of opportunities to work on a few things that we just simply didn’t get a chance to do in the Indian Super League. And the players, we’ve shown throughout the first four games, in particular, how good the players can be with the ball, and how brave and good technically they can be against some wonderful opposition.”

He added, “And tonight, we’ve also shown that more so from a defensive point of view, how strong we can be if we stay connected and stay together. And then the strategy was to hit them on the break, and especially in the space that they leave what we thought they were left between, you know, they connect both fullbacks and there was a lot of space that we felt we could exploit down the sides and very pleased with the outcome very pleased with how the players stuck to the game plan. Very pleased with the overall outcome of this tournament.”

Buckingham is delighted after a promising performance from his team in a tough competition like the AFC Champions League. The Mumbai City FC manager added they will look to continue the good show.

He concluded, “There was a big change of personnel, both player-wise and staff-wise from our team last year that qualified for this event. We lost a lot of experienced and senior players to the group. And I think the team has taken to the field tonight it’s a very young side. We want to really develop these young players and take the take them forwards. But we also need to be smart that how we do that because we have some wonderful experienced players at the club.”

He went on to add, “They really helped nurture these young players and allow them to perform and do what they do on the field. So it does set us up very well for going into next season. We’re already making plans for what next season starts to look like for us. And a lot of these players will play a major part in that now because we’ve spent the last eight months together literally 24 hours a day in a bio bubble, which has really helped us come together. And we’ve seen the results of that tonight. So I’m really looking forward to getting back on the grass in a couple of months’ time with this group of players to continue the good work.”