Mumbai City FC head coach, Des Buckingham has urged his side to quickly regroup following their dismal performance on Saturday where they were thrashed 6-0 by Saudi Arabian side Al-Shabab FC in their AFC Champions League encounter.
Mumbai went into the game looking to move to second in Group B, but the Islanders struggled on the night as a Hattan Bahebri hat-trick (19’, 64’, 66’), a goal apiece from Al-Joui (52’) and Carlos Junior (81’), and an Mourtada Fall’s (36’) own goal gave the Saudi side an easy win.
Buckingham was not very pleased with his sides performance and wants them to take learnings from this game and get going for the upcoming fixtures.
Des Buckingham reflected on the learnings from the match ? Al Shabab ?️
Here’s what #TheIslanders‘ head coach had to say ⤵️#SHBvMUM #IslandersInAsia #ACL2022 #AamchiCity ? pic.twitter.com/uWVuraqQRB
— Mumbai City FC (@MumbaiCityFC) April 23, 2022
“The first half I was pleased, the first 10-15 minutes, we had the chance, and we should’ve scored. It was some particularly good football. But I think from the moment we conceded the goal, we played out a couple of times but the third time we conceded, we started out as too defensive, we didn’t stick with what we wanted to do,” he said post the game.
“So, it’s a learning for us, we must quickly regroup, and we will, as we are a strong group because we still have an opportunity to finish higher in the group if we win our next game. We got ourselves in a good position, we’ll take away learnings from this match which are especially important, and the experiences of these players playing this game, in this team, at this level, which stands us in a good state, now and in the future,” Buckingham added.
The loss on the night means that Mumbai have slipped to bottom of the Group with four points from five games and they will need to play out of their skins if they are to go past the group stage.
