Jelena Čanković says ‘there is a lot to build on’ for Brighton despite defeat to Manchester City at Wembley.
Čanković was speaking after Brighton had played in their first Adobe Women’s FA Cup final since 1983. For the opening exchanges of the match Brighton were the better team but Manchester City’s superior class eventually told as the match finished 4-0.
After the match Čanković spoke to the media and The Halfway Line was there to hear from her.
Jelena Čanković says Brighton have ‘a lot to build on’ after Wembley defeat
Brighton started the match impressively and had the better of the exchanges in the first 30 minutes of the match. However they could not make that dominance count, and City found their way back into the match. Brighton took the match to City and The Halfway Line asked Čanković to reflect on going toe to toe with the champions,
“I mean that’s that’s the way we want to play, and you’re not going to change what you do daily or like all year just for the one game” Čanković asserted. “Because that’s what our coach and the club stands for, we have a style of play, and we just want to compete.
“That’s the way if you want to compete against the top teams, and we really believed that we could make a result, so unfortunately it didn’t go our way, they’re a great team, so of course it could go either way.
“There was just a big belief from us, and we played our game, and I think we really dominated first, probably 30 minutes, then when you can see the goal [goes in] of course it’s hard.
“Then then the second one, so it’s of course hard to come back, but yeah I think still like we could be proud on a lot of things that we did, but then yeah, it’s at the end, it’s like 4-0, it’s a big loss, so it’s a bit disappointing, but I still think there is a lot to build on to the performance.”
‘I love playing under Dario’ lauds Čanković
Only Yui Hasegawa had more passes into the final third of the pitch than Jelena Čanković on Sunday. The style of play Dario Vidošić implements clearly suits her game, Čanković spoke to that player/coach relationship,
“Yeah, of course, I mean I love playing under Dario, and I love his style of football. So I think it suits me a lot. So I think he’s really bringing the best out of a lot of players.
“So yeah, just enjoying and we want to have the ball, it doesn’t matter who we play against, and, and that’s what we wanted to do today. I’m just still so disappointed.”
