FC Pune City goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya happy with saved penalty and getting revenge over Mumbai City FC

Teammates congratulate Arindam Bhattacharya of FC Pune City as the latter saves a penalty

Match no. 48 of the Indian Super League (ISL) between FC Pune City and Mumbai City FC will be remembered not only for Dudu's brace, which propelled Pune into the top four, but for a lot of other reasons. Primary amongst them would be the sending off of the Pune coach Franco Colomba for having celebrated Omagbemi Dudu's goals (as well as the one disallowed by Vadocz) by running onto the field.

In the post match conference held at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, while Peter Reid was at his diplomatic best, Pune's Franco Colomba was not allowed to attend it following a touchline ban imposed on him.

We need to show our pride: Reid

Reid who came in first said that there were no excuses for his team's loss. “I am not going to make any excuses. We had put out a team, which we thought was one of our best sides and we couldn't win,” he said.

Of course he had a word or two to say about the first goal, where Dudu who was (apparently) lying injured on the ground found it in him to get up and run to receive the ball from Kostas, thereby prompting a series of verbal exchanges between him and the Mumbai players. He said, “It was the referee's decision. I don't have anything to say about it. Whatever I say I can't change it. I am a diplomat as well. It's football. These things happen. I am not criticising anyone, it's not my style.”

Reid mentioned that Pune were the better team on the day and that even despite a string of lost chances they found their footing to score the goals. Even though his Mumbai side has been struggling with the wins he has largely remained very optimistic about the team and the league itself.

“The league is very competitive. There are two more games left. And I would like to win the next game and the game after that. I don't care what happens. It's competitive, we need to show our pride and our professionalism too. We should have a couple of players back in the side for the next two games,” he said.

We knew we would win today: Dudu

While Reid was upbeat and optimistic about the game, an elated coach Franco Colomba (who had celebrated thrice on the pitch, with his team) was not allowed to speak in the post match conference. Pune chose to let their custodian Arindam Bhattacharya and hero of the match Omagbemi Dudu to address the post match conference.

A visibly elated Dudu spoke of the game in jovial tones. “It was a good game. Yes there were too many chances missed but somewhere in my head we knew that we were going to win the game,” he said.

About the controversy surrounding the first goal (he had a verbal exchange with forward Abhishek Yadav after the match) he said, “I fell down, and I was in pain. I really thought they would kick the ball out of play but they continued to play. Of course we were looking for the win, but when the chance came I got up, still in pain, and managed to score the goal. All that I told him (Yadav) was that they should have played the ball out of the field of play when they saw that I was lying on the ground.”

Arindam on the other hand was pleased with his team's efforts. And while he acknowledged the high-five, he shared with his coach was one of the highlights of the game, he did mention that somewhere at the back of his mind, the 5 – 0 loss to Mumbai earlier on was there in the back of the minds of the whole team.

“Of course we remember what happened the last time around, but today was completely different we were on the attack since the first minute and the results showed. It was our game to win and we did.”

On the saved penalty he said, “Yes I guessed that he would shoot to the right. But it was a very important save to make. Had they scored we would have to come from behind to win the game and it would not have been an easy task.”