Carvalhal revels in ´deserved´ Swansea win

Carlos Carvalhal claimed “luck is part of the game” after Swansea City came from behind to beat Watford 2-1 away from home in his first match in charge.

The Portuguese coach was sacked by Sheffield Wednesday last week but quickly found himself back in work, the Swans appointing him to succeed Paul Clement at the Liberty Stadium.

Taking over from caretaker player-manager Leon Britton, Carvalhal had an instant impact at Vicarage Road, where Jordan Ayew and Luciano Narsingh scored in the final four minutes on Saturday to snatch all three points.

“A difficult game,” Carvalhal was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. “Watford have a good team.

“We deserved a win, luck is part of the game – they were lucky when we put the ball on the bar. 

“We had some parts where [goalkeeper] Lukasz Fabianski made fantastic saves.

FT: @WatfordFC #Swans

WHAT A TURNAROUND! GET IN!! pic.twitter.com/JyRMZA2ura

— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) December 30, 2017

“I must say to my players I am very, very happy with what they did on the pitch in a difficult situation… we didn’t play the first 45 minutes as we wish because we had some problems to control [the game].

“The last 15 minutes we solved this problem. We started taking risk and put more players in attack. 

“The game is like this, but we prepared very well, changed the formation and had just two training sessions with the team.

“I must give congratulations to my players. They are better players than they are showing. They need a plan and a dynamic. During the game they were better and better.”

It was a familiar story for Watford, though, who are developing an unwanted habit of drawing or losing after taking the lead in matches under coach Marco Silva. 

16 – Watford have dropped more points from winning positions than any other team in the @PremierLeague this season. Frittered.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 30, 2017

“[A] big disappointment,” Silva told a post-match news conference.

“We did enough to win this match. They had one shot early on, through Ayew, and then didn’t create one chance until their goal.

“[Watford goalkeeper Heurelho] Gomes didn’t make one save. We had enough chance to kill the match. We controlled the game until that moment.

“We had a clear chance even a few seconds before they equalised. When you don’t score, it gives relief for the opponents. We didn’t create a big, big number [of chances], but more than enough to score.”