"Honestly, we lost the position when we lost against Bashundhara," Juan Ferrando reflects on AFC Cup journey

Mohun Bagan's AFC Cup journey eneded after a humiliating loss against Odisha FC in Kolkata. Juan Ferrando's men were handed out a 2-5 defeat at the iconic Yuba Bharati Krirangan in front of their own fans as they bowed out from the tournament. Even a win against Maziya FC in their last match will not help the mariners to go ahead from the group stage to the knockouts. In the post match press conference, Mohun Bagan coach Juan Ferrando shared his thoughts on how they fell behind in the tournament.

After scoring first in the first half, somehow Mohun Bagan lost their momentum and started conceeding goals in quick sensation and from then on Ferrando's men could not turn things around to have a hope to reach the inter-zonal semi-finals. Refelction on the game coach Juan Ferrando said, "In the first half, the first twenty minutes, the team was okay. After the first twenty minutes, the team lost focus. The last two goals happened obviously because the team was tired."

This was the first time Mohun Bagan Super Giant had to digest five goals against any opposition in AFC tournaments. As per Ferrando, in the last minutes of the game when you are trying to score and comeback in the match, you give the opposition a chance and space to score. Odisha just took advantage of that.

Also Read: Mohun Bagan Super Giant vs Odisha FC: The Juggernauts beat Mariners by 5-2 to knock them out of the AFC Cup 2023-24

Mohun Bagan missed four of their main players in a big game like this and that showed on the pitch. Manvir Singh and Dimitri Petratos were out to due to injuries and could only watch the match from the stands. Anwar Ali was still recovering from the injury he sustained against Bashundhara in Odisha.

"It is difficult when some players are playing without being 100% fit. But, it is part of football. This moment, we are thinking about future now. Thinking about the next match now. Because, before the start of the match everybody knew it was tough for us to qualify since Bashundhara won," Juan told the media.

But, the Mohun Bagan coach agreed on the fact that it was the defeat in Dhaka against Bashundhara Kings that led to their downfall in the AFC Cup 2023/24. "When we played at home but not really at our home against Bashundhara, the draw against them was disappointing. Honestly, we lost the position when we lost against Bashundhara. This is the truth," Juan expressed.

However, Mohun Bagan had the slightest of chances to qualify for the knockouts given Bashundhara drew or lost against Maziya and then Mohun Bagan try to win both of their games. But, two late goals from Bashundhara Kings made very tough for Mohun Bagan to qualify with the head-to-head stats they had against Bashundhara Kings.

"Obviously when we started the warmup and we know about Maziya up by 0-1, obviously everybody was happy. In two minutes they changed the score. We are thinking in our game, we are thinking in our details but it's true, behind us we knew in that moment it was very very very difficult," Juan revealed.