Riga FC head coach Adrian Gula was adamant his side had been the better team after a dramatic 3-3 draw with RFS at LNK Sporta Parks, while Viktors Morozs took encouragement from the way his team repeatedly responded after falling behind.
Riga led three times in the Big Riga Derby on Sunday, but were unable to turn any of those advantages into victory, with Gula particularly frustrated by the manner in which RFS were allowed back into the game.
“We were in front and I think we needed to finish the game with a victory,” Gula said. “If you play like this away against RFS, you dominate, you play really good football and you are three times in front, you need to freeze the game and win the game.”
When subsequently asked whether Riga had perhaps been the better side, the Slovak coach was even more emphatic.
“Not probably – we were better. You cannot be afraid to say we were better,” he said.
“We had better possession, we had more shots, we had more xG. With full respect for RFS, in this game we were better. That is my opinion.”
Morozs offered a different perspective on a match in which RFS struggled during the opening stages but found a response each time Riga appeared to take control.
The RFS manager acknowledged that the first 25 to 30 minutes had not gone according to plan and said his staff changed the team’s structure several times during the match in an attempt to react to Riga’s approach.
While unhappy with parts of the performance and a number of individual mistakes, Morozs was pleased with the resilience his players showed.
“This type of reaction from the team I liked a lot,” he said, adding that although he did not like the opening 25 to 30 minutes, his overall assessment of the game was considerably more positive.
Set-pieces provided another point of contrast between the two coaches.
Gula said Riga had spent considerable time preparing to defend them in the days before the derby, making the goals conceded from such situations particularly difficult to accept.
“During the last four days we defended, I don’t know, 100 set-pieces,” he said. “One can be a goal, I think it is normal that this can happen. But this happened in this moment.”
He was especially unhappy with Žiga Lipušček’s free-kick, arguing that Riga knew the RFS captain carried a threat from that position.
“For me, the biggest problem was this free-kick because Lipušček scored minimum one goal in the league like this,” Gula said.
“We need to analyse this very quickly and show it to the players because this situation, or a similar situation, can happen on Thursday. We need to be a million per cent better because for me it was an easy goal.”
For Morozs, however, the same moment was evidence of preparation paying off. He confirmed that the free-kick routine had been worked on before the match and praised Lipušček for recognising the situation and taking responsibility.
“Žiga is the right captain to take this initiative on himself and do it,” Morozs said of the prepared routine.
The result left Gula with the greater sense of an opportunity missed. He described the derby as a match Riga had wanted to win to strengthen their position in the title race, but said the championship remained open.
RFS remain atop the Latvian league, leading Riga FC by one point, with 10 games left to play, including one final Big Riga Derby.
