It was tougher than what the score showed: Juan Pedro Benali

Juan Pedro Benali urged the NorthEast United fans to fill the stands.

NorthEast United FC got their first points of the season with an emphatic 3-0 win over southern rivals Chennaiyin FC. The Highlanders put up a dominating display and tore the Marina Machans to shreds.

Parthib Gogoi opened the scoring with a strike straight from the heavens before Phalguni Singh added a second in the second half. Asheer Akhtar scored a long ranger from outside the box and put the game the game to bed in the dying moments.

After the game, head coach Juan Pedro Benali addressed the media and here’s what he had to say.

Thoughts on the game

The head coach shared his thoughts on the game and said that the game was tougher than what the scoreboard displayed.

“It was tougher than just what the score showed. All the players put up a good performance. It’s not just Parthib (Gogoi) and Phalguni (Singh), all the players were strong defensively. The midfield was strong, Nestor gave us a lot of options, the full-back and Mirshad (Michu) were great.

He further added that the players executed the plans very well.

“They played according to the game plan as we practised. Today we played against a very good team with great players. Slowly we tell everyone that we are here. We need the fans to trust in us and we need their support. We don’t have fans on social media, we want them on the field,” he asserted.

Asheer Akhtar’s performance

Asheer Akhtar has been very solid in the last two games. He performed extremely well defensively and capped it off by scoring an absolute screamer in the last minute of the game. Speaking about him, the head coach said, “He is a great player. He’s performing everyday and growing and is one of the most important players of the team. And it’s not just him, everyone were great.”

Next game

Juan Pedro Benali signed off by sharing his thoughts ahead of the next game and said the team will now focus on the fixture and start their preparations from tomorrow.

“For us the next game is on the 6th of october. Our season is just one game. And after that we will think later. Now we only think about the next game and we start tomorrow afternoon,” he concluded.