ISL 2017-18: Never in my life have I seen a situation like this in professional football, exclaims Goa coach Lobera

IN AN untoward situation, FC Goa had to get into action against ATK after just landing in the city minutes ago due delays caused by technical errors. But they managed to hold onto a 1-1 draw. Coach Sergio Lobera expressed displeasure on the whole situation but at the same time was happy to not have any of his players injured.

"Never in my life have I seen a situation like today in professional football! I think the ISL is a great competition and it doesn’t deserve matches like today. The only thing I can be content today is none of my players was injured because today was an incredible day. Yesterday, we took a flight that had to turn back due to an emergency landing. This morning we tried to do the same thing again, and again we had a technical fault and couldn’t leave. We had to come here running because if we didn’t we would have lost the three points. We had to train in our travel kits, we had to change and get ready in our match kits in five minutes. So it’s obvious that we ended up conceding a goal in the first four minutes."

He further complimented his players for their mental and physical strength,

"I think the players put in a lot of strength – mental strength and physically when they were out there. They did everything that they possibly could. When we go out there we play for pride and we represent the people of Goa when we come here."

Talking about the match, he said,

"We had a good game. There were a few opportunities towards the end which we should have probably taken, but given the circumstances, ultimately we weren’t able to give our all. Probably in different circumstances, we would be able to do that. We have a game today, we have one on the sixth and we have one following that. It’s just not today that’s going to be affected, even the games that are coming up."

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