You need to be awake for 100 minutes when you play against big clubs, says Juan Pedro Benali

NorthEast United boss Juan Pedro Benali also rued over his team not converting the chances.

NorthEast United’s trip to the city of joy was not at all joyful as Mohun Bagan tore them to shreds. The Highlanders began the game on the right note after Tomi Juric opened the scoring from the spot. They had maintained their lead until the injury time of the first half when Mohun Bagan scored two goals in quick succession to take the lead.

The side from Guwahati leveled things up in the early stages of the second half after Tomi Juric found the net again. But after that Dimtri Petratos and Sahal Abdul Samad scored one goal a piece to put Antonio Habas’ side into the driver’s seat.

After the match, NorthEast United’s head coach Juan Pedro Benali addressed the media. Excerpts are below:

What went wrong?

When asked about what went wrong in the match, Benali said that NorthEast United paid the price for playing young and inexperienced players.

“We were young. That’s what’s wrong with us. We worked very hard in the first half. And suddenly, with two sleeping seconds, we conceded two goals, especially against a big team with big players like Mohun Bagan. We came back to make it 2-2, but again, same thing. We pay the price as young and inexperienced, and this is what happened. We came here to learn and compete,” he revealed.

Thoughts on the game

Sharing his thoughts on the game, the Spaniard said that his team started well and had many chances to score but failed to do so, meanwwhile Mohun Bagan converted from half chances.

“We started very well in the second half. We made it 2-2. We had many chances to score but we didn’t. On the contrary, Mohun Bagan had half a chance and they scored against us. This is the difference. They’ve experienced and quality players. We have quality but we need experience. We have a lot of young players doing the job and we hope next time we don’t make the same mistakes. 

He also added that the team can be proud of themselves because they can go toe-to-toe against any opponent.

“We can learn from it (the outing). We looked into their eyes and we need to be proud. We’re building a team. We’re not thinking only about the season. And this is important for us. We are learning and we’re showing everybody that we’re not a small team. We can go head to head with any team,” he asserted.

Learnings from the match

Speaking about the learnings from the game, Juan Pedro Benali said that while playing against big teams like Mohun Bagan, the players need to be turned on for 100 minutes and not lose their focus.

“What we should learn is that when you play against big teams, you need to be awake for 100 minutes and not only for 45 minutes in the first half and then you sleep. We need to concentrate over time,” he quipped.

Defensive performance

When quizzed about his side’s defensive performance, Benali said, “We cannot concede in the critical phase. In minute 45, we should have calmed down the game. The difference is when you you put very young players to play, maybe they don’t give you points, but they give you a future. That’s what happened. We paid those prices,” he concluded.

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