Kerala Blasters FC head coach Ivan Vukomanovic was delighted to have recorded a win over an extremely difficult opponent in Hyderabad FC on Sunday but refused to get carried away by his team's position in the table.
Alvaro Vazquez's strike in the first half helped Kerala Blasters FC beat Hyderabad FC 1-0 and climb to the top of the ISL standings. Vukomanovic felt happy for his players and for the fans, but warned his players against any kind of complacency.
The Serbian in the post-match press conference said: "I think that tonight we played against one of the best teams in the league. I think that we played against one of the best organised teams in the league. Well balanced, the team was working consistently for a while since last year. I think that they have a great team. It's a team that is very tough to beat and we are happy because we managed that tonight, and we managed not to concede a goal."
"Speaking about the table position, we are not occupied. And we are not busy with all these statistics, because we have to know, we have to be honest that there are still ten more games, there are still 30 points to collect, to fight for. For us, every game is like a final. For us, every game is like a fight. And we have to continue like that. That's the only way that we can collect points. That's the only way that you can survive in this league at the top. So we will try to do our best in the second half of this competition, it will be very tough because I think that many teams will now be reorganised, every game for us will be tough like today," he added.
Kerala has now stretched their unbeaten streak to nine games, moving to the top of the points table with a better goal difference than Mumbai City FC, both being on 17 points from 10 games. This is the first time they went top of the ISL table this season and also the first time since the last seven years.
Hyderabad, on the other hand, saw their eight-game unbeaten run come to an end as they dropped to the third in the table having 16 points from 10 matches.
( With inputs from ANI )
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