Indian Super Cup 2018 Final: 'East Bengal never gave up, their fans must be proud,' says Bengaluru FC coach Albert Roca

As the celebrations simmered down a bit for Bengaluru FC after an emphatic 4-1 victory over East Bengal, their head coach, Albert Roca opened up about the happenings at the Kalinga Stadium of Odisha. While addressing the media, Roca expressed his appreciation for the Red and Golds, and how they showed resilience even after having Samad Mallick sent off in the first half.

While the action involved some controversial decisions from the match official that were not quite well accepted among the fans, the battle between the two sides was a display of some top-notch football.

During the presentation ceremony, the fans witnessed some quality sportsmanship from Alber Roca’s side as they paid their respects to East Bengal through a guard of honour. Normally, the losing team gives the gesture to the winners. however, this display of respect from BFC was a remarkable move from the freshly crowned Super Cup champions.

Coach Roca was supremely happy and proud of his team’s performance and on being asked about the gesture from his men the Spaniard said, “It (the guard of honour) was quite normal. East Bengal had a good game, and they deserved to be in the final of the Super Cup.”

“While the supporters of East Bengal are a little sad, they must be proud of their team as they never gave up and that is what is very important in a sport – especially in the conditions they were playing in, with 10 guys on the field…” the coach added.

Roca said, “It was surely not easy for East Bengal, and they proved they have high quality as they were here in the final with the way they played in the entire tournament.”

While Bengaluru FC goalkeeper, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu got lucky with a mere yellow card amid his questionable challenge on EB’s goal scorer Kromah, here is what Albert Roca had to say on the challenge, “It (Gurpreet’s challenge) was a yellow for me, not a red. But it is difficult for me to see from my side. We have also played with ten players against Mohun Bagan and we had scored four goals. I was not scared about that.”