In match week eight of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Thursday at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha FC head coach Josep Gombau hailed his team's spirit after the juggernauts defeated Chennaiyin FC in a five-goal thriller.
With a penalty from Diego Mauricio and an own goal from Vafa Hakhamaneshi, the Kalinga Warriors were up 2-0. However, the visitors fought back when Abdenasser El Khayati scored a brace in the game.
However, Gombau's team scored the decisive goal in injury time, with Nandhakumar Sekar notching his goal in the 96th minute. The team is now tied on points with Mumbai City FC who is in second place as read in a statement released by ISL Media.
"First of all, we are happy with the three points that we got. The first half was very good and we dominated it. We scored and we had a couple more chances to go into halftime, winning 2-0. The second half was more equal. We scored a penalty, but Chennaiyin FC pressed us a lot and they played well. They are a good team with a strong winning mentality and after that, it was 2-2," the head coach expressed.
The coach was happy with the team's performance and appreciated the players for the fight they put in.
"Even at 2-2, we tried to score the third goal and we scored after a minute. We showed the mentality and the character that the boys have and we take it game by game (from here). (At the moment), the Hero ISL standings are very close and if we had lost, Chennayin FC would have gone up ahead of us. I'm happy with the way the players fought until the last minute to win the game," added Gombau.
Odisha FC and Chennaiyin FC ended in dramatic fashion in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
A 96th-minute Nandhakumar Sekar goal clinched a 3-2 win for the juggernauts after Chennaiyin FC had scored the equaliser in the 94th minute via an Abdenasser El Khayati penalty.
The team will now face NorthEast United FC in their next ISL encounter.
( With inputs from ANI )
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