The White and Blues’ head coach reflected on the 3-1 win over Lokomotiva at Maksimir, praising the first-half display and the team’s character after the break.
Without a number of regular starters who had to stay in Osijek through injury, the White and Blues beat Lokomotiva 3-1 at Maksimir. They were excellent in the first half and, given the chances they created, could have scored more than two.
Tunjić broke the deadlock in the 7th minute with a powerful, well-placed strike from around 20 yards, and Farkaš doubled the lead in the 36th minute from a Kalem cross. The hosts took control after the restart but only found the net once, through our former striker Marić in the 60th minute. In stoppage time, Mustafić unselfishly teed up Balelo on the counter, and he sealed the 3-1 win.
Head coach Federico Bessone focused in particular on the first-half performance, which will certainly have pleased every Osijek supporter.
I’m so happy and proud of our team. Expectations were very high, especially after we took just one point from a possible nine in our previous home games. That’s why I’m so happy after this win, above all because of the way we earned the points. In the first 45 minutes we really played football at a high level, while in the second half we struggled a bit and conceded that goal to make it 2-1 early on. But the team showed character in that spell when the opposition were pressing us. In the end we scored a third to make the win safe and I’m really proud, said Bessone.
Every absence covered
Despite a lengthy absence list, the Osijek head coach put out a side that beat Lokomotiva for the second time this season, and showed plenty of good things along with the right mentality.
With so many injuries hanging over us and the fans’ high expectations, sometimes you don’t know what to say or how to explain things to the lads on the pitch, but this time we were incredible in the first half. We showed that when we have that personality and believe in what we’re doing, we belong at the top of the table. We were missing a lot of players, and I won’t talk about which of them matters more to our game, but we managed to cover for all of them and that’s why I’m both happy and proud, added Bessone.
Hajduk next up at Opus Arena
The points won in Zagreb also matter ahead of our next match, when we host Hajduk at Opus Arena on Sunday, 8 November, at 3pm.
It will be a good game at our stadium, in front of our fans. We’re third in the table on 20 points and we’ll try to win again, even though it will be very tough. Hajduk are in great form, but we’ll give everything to take all three points and close the gap on the leaders even further, concluded Bessone.
