Steve Coppell, the Kerala Blasters coach seemed very happy with his team's performance in the first leg of the semi-final against the Delhi Dynamos. The home side take a minor 1-0 advantage into the second leg at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi, where the Dynamos have been especially convincing and attractive with their style of football.
Speaking after the game, the former England International praised his side for creating the number opportunities they did, against a resolute Dynamos defence "I am very pleased that we created opportunities and going forward it gives us optimism and Delhi are a good side and for us just to get our noses in front was important and another goal would have been great".
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Kerala Blasters being the higher ranked side after the group stages were entitled to play the second leg of the semi-final at home, but due to logistical issues caused due to hosting the final at the Kochi, the Blasters were made to play the first leg of the semi-final at home.
"We have got our noses in front and we are pleased to be going there, and it is a shame that the second leg isn’t here but we have talked about that before,” the Blasters manager said.
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Quizzed about his team's tactics for the second leg away at Delhi, the former Manchester United man kept his cards firmly close to his chest, despite adding that it is difficult to have a set tactic for a semi-final, "I honestly don’t know and we will just go out and play and I don’t think you can set out and decide that we will defend or counter-attack".
"The game has an ebb and flow to it but at home knowing that they have to score goals and beat us so they might have more urgency in their play and we might be pressurised a little bit more and there is no way we will go there thinking we are 1-0 ahead. We will defend it but we will just go there and play and see what happens." said the Englishman.
Steve Coppell also spoke about the recovery period of his players after the game, with the second leg just two days away, and the Blasters having to take a long flight down to the capital, “I don’t know and we have to find out till everyone recovers and that would be a big part of the decision-making process and we have to travel tomorrow and we have only one day to prepare for the game on Wednesday, so we will wait till tomorrow and see how the players are and if anyone has any injuries and then we will pick the team on Tuesday.”
The second leg is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, the 14th of December at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi.
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