India Coach Manolo Marquez Pleased Despite Loss to Syria

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Despite their loss to Syria on Monday, September 9, India’s coach, Manolo Marquez, expressed his satisfaction with his team’s effort, particularly in the second half. The hosts had several excellent opportunities in the second half of the Intercontinental Cup encounter, but Syria prevailed 3-0 on the day.

After the game, Marquez claimed he believed his side was terrified in the opening few minutes and that’s why he was unhappy in the first half. The India manager believed they should have scored and that the result of 3-0 wasn’t a fair representation of the game. Marquez said his team showed bravery in the game’s second half.

“I take offense at the first part. Fearful teams don’t appeal to me. In the initial moments, we were terrified. Their aim was something we could stay away from. I think the second half is good enough. I don’t think the score was 3-0 during the game. We, in my opinion, at least deserved to win. The match between Syria and Mauritius was very similar. They destroyed us because they had excellent counterattack players. We must continue. I’ll say it again: we showed bravery in the second half in both attitude and posture “said Marquez.

Following a somewhat dull first half, India had many opportunities to test the Syrian goalie. Liston Colaco would fire a shot that nearly went in and rattled the crossbar. Marquez believed that his team had improved tenfold in the second half of the game.

At least we had opportunities today. We were basically absent the other day. We generated some opportunities today. Yes, we will score, but we can’t really complain about missing this or that player today, in my opinion. Two or three really challenging balls were stopped by the goalie. The second half of the performance is strong. In comparison to the first half, the team performed 1000 times better in the second half. We had great bravery,” Marquez remarked.