ISL: 'This Is Reality!' East Bengal Coach Carles Cuadrat Afer Losing To Mumbai City FC 1-0

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East Bengal coach Carles Cuadrat said playing defensive against Mumbai City FC was a choice as the visitors defeated the Kolkata Giants 0-1 in a dominant show at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday (February 13).

East Bengal only saw 33 per cent of ball possession during the match and had no shot on target despite going 1-0 down to an Iker Guarrotxena goal inside the first 30 minutes. Carles Cuadrat said in his post-match reaction that this reality of his team in ISL.

"Playing defensive was something I asked my players to do because of our opponents," said Cuadrat right after the match. "This is the reality of ISL. There are five teams in the league, who are winning one match after another while rest six have won two-three matches. The rest of the five teams will have to fight for that one position."

Cuadrat was pointing at the revised structure of Indian Super League, which allows the top two teams a direct place in the semifinal while the remaining four sides will progress to the playoff stages. At the moment, the top five clubs, including fourth-placed Mumbai City FC (25 points for 13 games), have pulled a gap from the rest of the pack.

Likes of East Bengal, Bengaluru FC, and Chennaiyin FC among others are vying for that remaining sixth place to qualify for the playoffs. East Bengal (12 points in 13 games) lost further ground in the battle as they remained on 10th place following the defeat and may go down in the bottom two by the end of this week if Chennaiyin FC manage to hold Kerala Blasters for a draw at least in front of home support.

However, despite the setbacks, East Bengal have time to recover in the race for the sixth spot as East Bengal have a match in hand to sixth-placed NorthEast United, who have 16 points in 14 games. East Bengal will play Hyderabad FC later this weekend as they travel to Hyderabad for back-to-back games in matchweek 15.