Reigning champions Mumbai City FC head coach Petr Kratky showered praise on his players after a 1-1 draw against Punjab FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi in the ongoing Indian Super League 2024-25 on Thursday.

The Shers skipper Luka Majcen scored in the stoppage time before half-time whistle to give a 1-0 lead to the home team. However, the Islanders equalized as Nikolaos Karelis scored in the 58th minute.

The visitors dominated the possession with 60.4% but could only take two shots on target.

“I believe we are going in a different direction, I think we are going up. We have had a couple of bad runs at home, but the team is very strong and I’m very proud of the group today because they showed spirit, it’s a very difficult bounce back,” Kratky said at the post-match press conference.

“Punjab FC beat us 3-0 at home (in the first leg), so a very difficult team to play, they had a couple of bad runs on their own, but again we fought back, we went 1-0 down and we regrouped halftime and we came back and we almost won the game, so I’m extremely proud of the group,” he added

Kratky observed better energy and execution in this game and shed light on the promising future ahead for the team.

“We will have a very strong end to the season, we played very well today in my opinion, far better, there was much more energy and again very proud of the group, so again we go game by game, we don’t look at what is on the ladder now, we have next game to play and we will do our best to win the games,” he said.

Mumbai City FC will next take on Mohammedan SC at the Mumbai Football Arena, Mumbai on January 26th.