East Bengal FC head coach Oscar Bruzon blamed the attackers after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Bengaluru FC at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium, Kolkata in the ongoing Indian Super League on Sunday.
Raphael Bouli scored the opening goal for the Red and Gold Brigade in the 11th minute but the hosts suffered a huge blow when they were reduced to 10 men after Dimitrios Diamantakos received a direct red card in the first half’s stoppage time.
Sunil Chhetri scored the equalizer for the Blues in the injury time of the game to help his team share a point.
Bruzon praised his team for their first-half performance but said the match turned on its head when Diamantakos was sent off. With this draw, East Bengal FC was also knocked out of the playoffs race.
“Today we are out of the top six because of the reactions of one of our players, this cannot be. The red card came at that moment when the team was confident, was pushing, was creating all of the chances, and was dominating. The fans were with us, unfortunately, the attack zone cost us the qualification to the league top six,” Bruzon said during the post-match press conference.
Both teams took five shots each on target but Bruzon admitted they could not handle pressure at the fag end.
“The boys today were fantastic when it was 11vs11. There was only one dominating team, we were hunting well, we were winning the balls in the opponent’s half, we were launching beautiful attacks, and we were controlling the ball possession. Unfortunately, after the 1-0 lead, if only we had scored another, then the result at the end of the game would be different. We had our chances but it’s also true that in the last 25 minutes of the game when they started to put pressure in our box, we were lucky, saved by the post,” he stated.
The Spaniard added the team’s focus will shift to the AFC after they were eliminated from the ISL.
“Until today, we were focused on ISL; we were giving total importance to the ISL. We wanted and we believed we could finish in the top six. But now, the objective of a top-six playoff spot in the ISL is not possible. Now we have just one objective, and that one is the AFC. So all efforts now are trying to recover the players.”
East Bengal FC will next take on NorthEast United FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Shillong on Saturday.
