Khalid Jamil hails ‘Outstanding’ Nidhin Lal

by Kaushal Shukla March 5, 2015

Mumbai FC held defending Champions Bengaluru FC to a 1-1 draw at Cooperage and that was mainly down to Nidhin Lal’s heroic performance between the sticks for the Mumbai side.

Coach Khalid Jamil was satisfied with the result but not too pleased as his side couldn’t get the victory. “The result was fine. It would have been better had we won, but we must also keep in mind that we played one of the best teams, so a draw is not too bad”.

Khalid though was happy with his side’s performance and did not have too many complaints regarding that. “The performance was good. Everyone played well”.

The Mumbai FC coach made one change to the line-up he has been playing for the last few games as Rahul Bheke came in for Reisangmi Vashum. “I changed few things today. I pushed up Ashutosh as he knows Keegan Pereira’s game well and he made sure Keegan did not bomb forward a lot. To add to it, I knew Ashutosh and Rahul play well in tandem and it worked well for us today”.

Khalid Jamil heaped praise on goalkeeper Nidhin Lal who was awarded the Hero of the Match award after the game. “Nidhin was outstanding today. He made some brilliant saves. He was up against some real good strikers of the ball and he was outstanding today”.

Khalid Jamil paid his tribute to the visitors who he felt were the toughest opponents his side had faced so far this season. “It was our toughest game so far. They are a very good team, probably the best in the country and players like Eugenson Lyngdoh and Chhetri had very good games. It was a good game of football and I enjoyed it personally”.

Khlaid jamil refused to comment a lot on the referee’s performance and felt he did a fair job. “The referee was okay. He did a decent job. About the penalties, I can’t comment anything, unless I see it on TV. But if he had given it, it would have been good”.

It was a good point for Khalid Jamil’s men against a very good Bengaluru FC side and one which sees their unbeaten home run stretch to four games.