Juan Pedro Benali unhappy with NorthEast United's draw against Kerala Blasters

NorthEast United were leading at halftime

The Indian Super League action returned to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi as Kerala Blasters hosted NorthEast United FC. The Highlanders opened the scoring courtesy of a pure magical move that resulted in a goal by Nestor Albiach.

Kerala Blasters started on piling up pressure on the Highlanders soon after and came close a couple of times in the first half. But, they were finally rewarded with an equaliser early in the second half after Danish Farooq scored past Mirshad.

After the game, NorthEast United’s head coach Juan Pedro Benali addressed the media.

Thoughts on the game

The head coach began by sharing his thoughts on the game. He expressed his disappointment and said that he was not happy with a draw as he came to take all three points out of the game.

“No, I am not happy with the result. I came to win and take the three points, but we couldn’t take it. I am never happy with the draw. We had a good game in front of a good team and a very nice crowd. Now we think forward,” he quipped.

Positive takeaways

Speaking about the positive takeaways from the game, Juan Pedro Benali said that slowly he is building a team that will not be easy to play against.

“We are a difficult team to play against. We can go forward as we are building a very good team and we have very good players. Slowly slowly we are showing everyone that it’s not easy,”

Improvements in the team

The head coach was asked about the improvements in the team He replied and said, “We’ve been in the NorthEast for 4-5 months now. We are building a team from scratch with some players from last season, some very young players, some veteran foreign players who give us the push to build the team. 

“From tomorrow morning we’ll think about the game against Jamshedpur. In four games we have the same points as we did all throughout last season. So, for us it is very positive and we are looking forward to the next game,”