SC East Bengal head coach Mario Rivera wants his team to improve on set-piece defending as they lost against Kerala Blasters

SC East Bengal suffered yet another defeat in their current campaign as they lost 1-0 against Kerala Blasters in their latest Indian Super League clash. The Red and Golds are now five matches winless and are waiting for this horrendous season to come to an end.

Enes Sipovic scored the solitary goal for the Blasters and helped them to get back on the winning ways. The win allowed the Blasters to climb back to the playoffs spots as they are only behind leaders Hyderabad FC and ATK Mohun Bagan.

Mario Rivera feels that his men played a great match but a concentration lapse from a set piece meant that they ended up on the wrong end of the scoresheet.

The Spaniard admitted that they could have secured at least a point as they defended well throughout the game but should have been more aware of setpieces situations. “Yes, of course. We did very well today, we defended well. We attacked well and created chances. They didn’t create chances, we stopped all their counterattacks. But once you get a set piece, you can lose a match. This is football for you. The goal came from a set piece,” Rivera revealed at the press conference after the game.

The Spaniard felt that poor defending from setpieces led to their downfall in this game. Lalthanthanga Khawlhring stepped up to take the corner as he floated the ball in the far post, Sipovic made no mistake in heading the ball home past Sankar Roy. When asked about the set-piece defending, Rivera added, “. You always have to be better in the set-piece. We’re not bad in the set-piece, we defended well and scored goals from the set-piece as well. But you can always improve in the set-piece.”

Several players from the starting eleven got excluded from the match against the Blasters. It included big names like Marcelo Ribeiro, Darren Sidoel and even Arindam Bhattacharya in goal was replaced by Sankar Roy. While the Brazilian forward is injured, Rivera revealed that the other two are down with fever.

“Marcelo got injured in the last match so he didn’t recover on time to play. But for Arindam and Darren, they are on rest as they are down with fever and are sick. So they couldn’t play. They are in their room and isolated because we don’t know if they can pass the virus to the players and so we’re taking care of that,” the Spanish tactician added.

Mario Rivera has always been vocal about aiming to win the remaining fixture. SC East Bengal have three matches remaining this season and the Spanish coach pointed out their aim of finishing the season on a high. “Yeah, it’s always the same we will try to win the next match. We are not thinking if three or two matches are remaining. We want to win the next match, we will come stronger. Hope we will be a little luckier next time.”