ISL 2021-22: Bengaluru FC coach defends Sunil Chhetri after goalless start to season

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Goa, December 12: Bengaluru FC head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli has defended skipper Sunil Chhetri's form following his team's defeat to FC Goa in Match 26 of the Indian Super League (ISL) 2021-22.

Bengaluru FC slipped to the tenth position in the points table after FC Goa handed them a third consecutive defeat, emerging 2-1 winners at the Athletic Stadium in Bambolim on Saturday (December 11).

While it was a third successive defeat, their skipper Chhetri is yet to score this season and missed a chance shooting over from close range in the 18th minute of the game. And following the match, coach Pezzaiuoli dismissed concerns around his skipper.

"He is a human being. Sometimes you don't have luck going for you. With the national team, he had a lot of luck as the ball fell to him many times and he scored five goals," said Pezzaiuoli in the post-match press conference as per the ISL website.

Chhetri has scored 40 goals for Bengaluru FC in the ISL so far and his coach said he needs more luck to convert the chances.

"Today (Saturday) he had a great chance and if he scores it's 1-1. Normally he would score that with his eyes closed. In this hard time, he has the support of the team and also how he worked for the team was good.

"He needs more luck inside the box. It happens when you don't work but with him he is working and it will come back.

"I don't think we should be talking a lot about Sunil. I don't pick one player out. We lost today as a team and that I feel is the important part," he added.

While it was Bengaluru FC's fourth defeat in 6 matches, this was a second consecutive victory for FC Goa in a match that saw two red cards and eight yellow cards. Bengaluru's Pezzaiuoli admitted it was a "tough" match for their side.

"First of all, we came back well. It was a tough game after we went down 0-1 but we came back with a nice goal from Cleiton to make it 1-1. In the second half we lost a bit of our minds after we had the numerical advantage.

"We didn't keep possession and started to play with long balls. So usually when you have one player more, you don't win games," said Pezzaiuoli

"It was a good game from us after half-time. We had control over FC Goa completely and we also created chances. But after the first five minutes, we stopped investing in the game as much as before. That was why we lost the game," he added.