ISL 2022-23: "They won the game fair and square" - Stephen Constantine on East Bengal's defeat to Kerala Blasters
East Bengal succumbed to a 3-1 defeat to Kerala Blasters in their first Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 match of the season at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi on October 7.
Adrian Luna and Ivan Kalyuzhnyi (twice) found the back of the net for Kerala Blasters, while Alex Lima scored the sole goal for East Bengal. Stephen Constantine's first game in charge in the ISL thus ended in a loss.
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Addressing the media after the game, East Bengal coach Constantine started off by congratulating counterpart Ivan Vukomanovic and his wards. He said:
"First of all, I want to congratulate Ivan and his team. They won the game 3-1, I think we can say, fair and square."
Constantine went on to assess his own team's performance:
"Look, I don't want to sit here and make excuses [saying] we are a young team, we've been training for six weeks and so on and so forth, but that is actually the case."
"I thought we did okay in the first half, we had the first chance. I think then in the second half we lacked a little bit of concentration at times."
"I mean [Adrian] Luna scores a worldie, but he shouldn't have been in that position and somebody should have gone with him and we've made mistakes. Basically, we didn't help ourselves."
East Bengal can take positives out of the game, feels Constantine
Despite the defeat, Constantine believes East Bengal can take some positives out of the game, especially their performance in the first half. He explained:
"Are there positives? Of course, they [Kerala Blasters] finished fourth last year in the league, same coach. I think for the first half we matched them and then the second half, I think we lost a little bit of momentum."
"Of course, conceding the second goal was a killer. Then to get one back showed the type of team that we're going to be, we're not going to roll over."
Constantine, who served as the Indian national team's coach for seven years over two stints, also expressed his gratitude towards the fans for the reception he received:
"It was a fantastic reception from the Kerala fans. I appreciate that. Of course, the first game back after two years of not having fans is massive. You could see the atmosphere."
"I mean, it's just unbelievable, which is, I think what I said to you coming in, I don't think we realise what we have here in India with with the football, I really don't."
"And once we figure out how to get the best out of it, India should be qualifying for the Asian Cup every maybe two years, every three years and why not the World Cup in the future, but we need to do a lot of things to get that right."
Constantine said he is not prepared to dwell on East Bengal's defeat and is already looking ahead to the team's next game against FC Goa at home. He said:
"It's not nice to lose but we will learn from this and we have a game coming up with Goa, that's in Kolkata and we move on."
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East Bengal will host FC Goa at home in the ISL on Wednesday in their next game (October 12).