Jorge Costa gloomy about defensive performance, Eelco Schattorie delighted with Rowllin Borges

The win helped the visitors to climb to second place in the league table.

NorthEast United produced a solid performance to sink the home side Mumbai City 2-0 at the Mumbai Football Arena on Wednesday night. The visitors' midfielder Rowllin Borges opened the scoring after just four minutes to hand The Highlanders a crucial lead. Meanwhile, Bartholomew Ogbeche added another just after the half hour mark to seal the game.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, NorthEast tactician Eelco Schattorie seemed extremely happy with his side's performance on Wednesday night. 

 

 

 

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Watch: Mumbai City FC 0-2 NorthEast United highlights

The victory was NorthEast's first away win since November and when questioned about whether his team lacked form till now Schattorie replied, "I still can't believe people say that the team's not in form and all that is nonsense. In the end, football is about winning that is true but before the break, we had some injuries and the worst schedule of all the teams and that played a huge influence."

"After the break, we won the first game and second game against Bengaluru we could have won. We missed a few chances and didn't get three clear penalties. So based on results I would say yes, but I think we didn't lack form," he added.

"We scored two goals from the tactics we worked on, but overall we played good and I am happy. We can play better, but we won and three points are the most important," Schattorie further added.

Rowllin Borges had a great game against Mumbai City and when questioned about his role in the side the Dutchman quipped, "If Rowllin has to play in the midfield in a 4-2-3-1 formation, he will have less ability to play forward. But, when he plays like this he has the dynamic to go forward and has the ability to score and we need to give him the freedom to make those runs."

"He played fantastic and could have scored another one but its okay. He needs to work on his control more, but his natural quality is his dynamics to go forward. So, we need to give him a role and in 4-3-3 he has the perfect role," he signed off.

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On the other hand, Mumbai City boss Jorge Costa was extremely disappointed with his side's defending and emphasized on the lack of options he has at the back, due to injuries to his main players.

When questioned about what exactly went wrong the Portuguese answered, "We tried, but at this level when you make mistakes, especially defensive mistakes, you cannot get more than zero points."

"We made a lot of mistakes in the defence. For example, we could have avoided the second goal, so yes we need to work a lot. We didn't work enough to win this game," Costa added.

"It's not the same team. After the break, we beat Bengaluru, but its not the same team. We need to see, we need to learn and we need to work hard to win the three points," the 47-year-old explained.

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"I didn't like Paulo (Machado) and that's why I took him off. But, the first person to be guilty of such poor defence is me. I am the first one. The players they played because I chose them to play and yes I am not happy with the defence," he asserted.

Mumbai City will next play ATK on 22nd February, while the NorthEast United will host FC Pune City on Wednesday 20th February.