The Portuguese tactician was delighted for K’Ogalo to have grinded out a slim win against the Simba wa Nairobi on their return to action
Gor Mahia coach Carlos Manuel Vaz Pinto believes his team deserved a second goal in their FKF Premier League match against Nairobi City Stars on Sunday.
The Kenyan champions returned to top-flight action with a slim 1-0 win against Simba wa Nairobi with Burkina Faso striker Karim Nikiema notching the all-important goal in the 31st minute of the battle at Utalii grounds.
While the game was tough for both sides, the Portuguese tactician was critical of the performance after they dominating the match against the promoted side without scoring a second goal.
“I think it was a tough game, the two teams played good football but I think we should have scored the second goal but we could not because our game was not easy,” Vaz Pinto told Goal.
“We controlled the game well but my problem was we had many opportunities to score the second goal but it never came and of course when we don’t score we need to fight for all the 90 minutes but I am happy for the win because we just came back after a long break.
“I was impressed with my players because they managed to run a lot even after not being in group training for a long period but I know this team will grow together, if they train they will grow step by step and what need is to look at the next match and win the match and think about our players and our team, that is the most important thing.”
On his part, City Stars coach Sanjin Alagic maintained his side put up a good display against the champions and they deserved to get something from the fixture.
“We played very good and I can just congratulate my guys because they played an outstanding match in the first half we were very dominant, we had better situations and better chances, better playing style and better ball possession I was even surprised we did not score any goal,” Alagic told Goal.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know many times this has happened this year as we conceded a silly goal, I don’t know even the situation we conceded the goal from and it was because of the bad reaction of our defenders but you can see even with a less player we also tried to attack and tried to score the goal, I can only be sad we didn’t take more points.
“I believe we deserved something from the fixture today [Sunday].”
On the straight red card shown to his player Elvis Ombija, Alagic said; “To be honest I didn’t see the situation so it is not fair I comment on something I did not see, I need to see the video again and to check if it was intentional and if there was some contact then, it is the decision.
“The lineman told me it was a red card but I didn’t see, I need to check again because at that moment I did not see the situation because it was from a more technical situation for us to see, but even with one man down we tried to score and even pushed for goals especially with Nicholas [Kipkirui] but unfortunately Gor Mahia managed to save themselves.”
The win pushed Gor Mahia to sixth position on the table on with 25 points from 15 matches, overtaking Wazito FC, who suffered a 2-0 defeat against Sofapaka in another match played on Sunday.
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