Mohun Bagan Super Giant head coach Jose Molina was delighted after his team registered a 2-0 (3-2 aggregate) win against Jamshedpur FC in the second leg of the Indian Super League semifinal at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata on Monday.
After a goalless first half, Jason Cummings scored in the 51st minute from a spot kick, levelling the aggregate score at 2-2. Just when it looked like the game would go into extra time, midfielder Apuia scored a stunning individual goal to help his team qualify for the second consecutive ISL final.
“To be honest, I think it has been really difficult. I think it was really good because they (Jamshedpur FC) did a great job. In their style, the defense was really good, and they put us under pressure to try to win. But in my opinion, we deserved that victory. Of course, the last goal, the last moment with Apuia’s shot and score, was amazing. It was a brilliant moment for us,” Molina said during the post-match press conference.
The Spaniard showered praise on Apuia, who scored the match-winning goal for the Mariners in the stoppage time.
He elaborated, “We fought a lot during 90 minutes to achieve that goal. Finally, Apuia was the lucky man to score. He deserved it. He did a great job and a good shot, of course. I’m really happy right now with the team, with the performance of the team, with the way the players fought until the end. They believed in me with calm, and stuck to the plan until the last moment. They didn’t get frustrated until the end. Finally, we received, in my opinion, what we deserved.”
The gaffer also revealed the team’s strategy after they secured the win in front of their home fans. The boss said they wanted to keep possession and wanted to play with patience.
“The plan today was to keep the position, move the ball, don’t be desperate, be patient, keep going and pay attention because when we use the ball, they are going to run on a counterattack. The plan was really good. It worked really well. We had a lot of chances to score. I was watching the statistics, 32–33, or more attempts on goal. It’s a lot for 90 minutes. But they (Jamshedpur FC) did a good job in defence. But we kept going. In my opinion, it was a well-deserved victory,” Molina said.
The home team had 73.6% possession and took 10 shots on target as they dominated the whole game.
Mohun Bagan Super Giant will face Bengaluru FC in the final of the ISL at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.
