'Fall is very good professional' - Mumbai City's Sergio Lobera backs defender in the controversial tackle incident in the first-leg

After winning the Indian Super League (ISL) League Winners Shield beating ATK Mohun Bagan in their final league stage game, Mumbai City played out a 2-2 draw against FC Goa in their first leg of the semifinal.

In fact, the Islanders could not impose themselves on Gaurs as they would have liked and coach Sergio Lobera acknowledged that he wasn't completely happy with his team's performance.

What did Lobera say?

"No, I am not happy because there were two things which were important for me in the last game. First, we had chances to score more goals and we have to be clinical in these situations and the second one is the game was very open. We didn't have control of the game during some periods of the game and we gave them the opportunity to play between the lines and spaces. We need to improve these," stated the Mumbai City coach.

The Spaniard though suggested that neither he nor his team is feeling any pressure ahead of the second leg tie and suggested that he would advise his players to enjoy the game against Goa.

"I don't feel any pressure neither do the players. It has been a big season and we have achieved something very important (AFC Champions League). We want to enjoy the play-offs, obviously, we want to win the trophy. We are very excited and we are very lucky to play these kinds of games. I don't feel any pressure, maybe the pressure is there for other teams," said Lobera.

'Don't like people provocating my players'

Mourtada Fall had got embroiled in a controversy after the first-leg tie as he had got away with a yellow card despite a two-footed challenge on Goa's Princeton Rebello in the dying moments of the match. Gaurs boss Juan Ferrando had even stated after the match that the Senegalese defender's tackle was like 'taekwondo'.

Countering the FC Goa coach, Lobera mentioned that he dislikes people who comment on his players without knowing them properly. He also urged everyone to back the referees and other match officials instead of 'crying' all the time over decisions. 

"Speaking about Fall, if someone says that he had a bad intention during the tackle then they don't know Fall. He is a big person, a big player and a very good professional. There was no bad intention for the tackle, I am a hundred per cent sure. I don't like people try to provocate my players because this player is playing here for a long time. Everyone knows how Mourtada Fall is. If you want to compare, then I can say that one player Edu Bedia bit Deepak Tangri (Chennaiyin FC) and he is still playing.

"I had Hugo Boumous suspended for four games. At the end of the last game, some people were speaking to the match commissioner or the referee. If we want to complain then we can complain about a lot of things. But I never speak about the referees. In the Jamshedpur match, the referee didn't give the goal to them and FC Goa then scored the goal and nobody spoke about that.

"Now in the play-off, I want to focus on my team and I don't like people crying all the time. On the pitch, we need to respect all the people and we need to try and help the people who are doing a difficult job - the referees, the match commissioners," opined the Spanish coach.

The former Las Palmas coach also heaped praise on Fall and suggested that he is lucky to have a player like Fall in his team. Fall has scored 13 headed goals in his ISL career, the same number as Sunil Chhetri.

"You can see the numbers. He is the player with the highest number of goals in knock-out games. He has scored 13 goals as a defender. He is very important for us but the most important thing is the team. Mourtada Fall is a very important player for us just like the other players. I am very happy that Fall is with us."