Manolo Marquez stood there, gazing into the distance, as his side were about to exit the 2023-24 Indian Super League with a 2-5 loss on aggregate. The ISL's master tactician, who'd taken much worse squads to big results in knockout football, had been outfoxed. Petr Kratky, the beneficiary of an Indian tornado a few days ago, had tuned his side perfectly for a 2-0 win on the night to add to their 3-2 win in Goa.
It's easy to forget now that Mumbai had suddenly earned a reputation of crumbling in the pressure of knockout football, Des Buckingham's vintage steamrolling the league stage but bowing out to Bengaluru FC on penalties last year. Their AFC Champions League campaign didn't help, nor did a quarterfinal loss to Mohun Bagan in the Durand Cup and a semifinal loss to Odisha FC in the Super Cup.
After the miracle in the Fatorda last Wednesday, the pressure was still on - a lead of a solitary goal isn't much, especially in the ISL. Just ask Odisha. Goa had thoroughly dominated that first game, and Marquez had words of warning: "They were celebrating too much... let's see what happens in Mumbai."
What happened in Mumbai was a masterclass of a second leg. Kratky's men did not offer Goa a sniff, and delivered sucker-punches on the counter that left Goa flattened.
An enforced change to Mumbai's backline due to the injury of Akash Mishra saw Mehtab Singh move to the left-back role, more suited to his left-sided nature, Thaer Krouma dropping into the centre-back role alongside Tiri and Rahul Bheke moving into the right-back role. The result was that Goa ended the game with one shot on target, an xG of 0.38, and only 20% of accurate crosses.
Bheke, in particular, was a titan in defence - he was up against what multiple managers have namechecked as the best player in the league - Noah Sadaoui. Bheke's strengths are passing out of the back and his positional sense, but a very different quality would be needed here. So a one-on-one battle against the trickiest winger the league has witnessed this season had the potential to trouble the Mumbai captain.
79 minutes later, Noah Sadaoui had been hauled off by Marquez, the least passes completed of a Goa outfielder who'd started the game, six attempted dribbles of which none were successful, just one out of ten duels won, and zero chances created. This is a player who is second only to Dimi Petratos in goals + assists this season (16, 1 behind Petratos), and he was made to look positively pedestrian by Bheke.
No inches were offered to the Moroccan. It's not as if Bheke didn't twist as Noah twisted (like so many had all season), but what he did do was not twist himself into a knot: a Goa attack in the 73rd minute the perfect microcosm of their entire game. Noah went left, Bheke went left, the Moroccan jinked right and Bheke followed, and back left where most defenders would be left with twisted ankles, but Bheke got back to block the attempt at a cross. A quiet fist-pump to himself, because Sadaoui had no more questions to ask.
Such was Bheke's confidence on the night that he even marauded forward, a touch to pluck a long ball out of the sky transforming into a first-time pass in one smooth motion right to Lallianzuala Chhangte, who couldn't convert the move. Mumbai were all about their defence an hour into their game, so it was only fitting that Bheke was responsible for their opener.
A corner was swung into the far post - Goa had put their best defender, Odei Onaindia, on Bheke, clearly aware of his prowess from set-pieces but it had little effect. On this night, the Mumbai captain would be losing no duels. He got his head to the ball and glanced a downward header that was cleared off the line, but that was alright, because Jorge Pereyra Diaz was on hand to fulfill his role as the poacher, crashing the ball home and giving Mumbai a 1-0 lead on the night in the 69th minute.
The goal deflated Goa, they needed two goals to force extra-time and never looked capable of even scoring one. Marquez rang in the changes, later acknowledging that he'd got his lineup wrong and taking full responsibility for the loss. The changes meant Goa poured forward, just as Kratky expected them to do, and he had the perfect players to snipe them on the counterattack. The 83rd minute saw precisely that scenario play out, Vikram Pratap Singh measuring a perfect through ball from the left wing to Lallianzuala Chhangte and Mumbai's best attacker slowed down time, conned Udanta Singh and Dheeraj Singh before circling the Goa keeper and tapping it home.
That decided the contest, and even the eight minutes of injury time the referee added meant nothing - only that Bheke was dribbled past for the first time in the game by Brison Fernandes. Perhaps that was what Marquez was contemplating at the end - what if Brison had started, what if Sadaoui had played centrally, instead of the ineffectual Carlos Martinez?
It's precisely these questions that Mumbai were often left contemplating under Buckingham, but through Kratky they seem to be finding better answers. Salt Lake, on the 4th of May, facing up to Antonio Habas' Mohun Bagan is an almighty question though, but should Bheke and Chhangte turn up with similar performances, Mumbai might just have the answer on how to beat Bagan.