The most important thing is to recover the players, asserts NEUFC coach Juan Pedro Benali

Juan Pedro Benali also focussed on their approach of going game-by-game.

NorthEast United kept their playoffs hopes alive with a dominant 2-0 win over Kerala Blasters at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati. It was the Highlanders’ first win over the Blasters since 2021. The home side made their intentions clear from the get-go and kept on piling up the pressure on the visitors, but lacked the final touch every time. 

Finally, after a lot of unsuccessful attempts, Nestor Albiach gave his side the much-needed opening goal in the 84th minute, before Jithin MS added a second goal injury-time. After the game, NorthEast United’s head coach Juan Pedro Benali addressed the media:

Impact of Romain Philippoteaux

The head coach introduced French attacking midfielder Romain Phillipoteaux in the second half, who made a lot of difference for his side. Speaking about the same, Juan Pedro Benali said, “We knew that the style of Romain cannot play a full game because it was too tight.

“We also need Hamza (Regragui) to play for a long time and he needs minutes. I mean when Kerala started to open the lines, Romain would be the best player to have and in the end, the fruit came.” 

Upcoming game against Chennaiyin FC

The Highlanders will play Chennaiyin FC next, which will possibly be the most important game for them this season. Sharing his thoughts about that match, the Spaniard said that it would be a very different game because both teams are under pressure. 

“Now, the most important thing is to recover the players, the most of them, see who’s ready for the game and to prepare it as best as we can. It’s a different style of game in Chennai. Chennai is a different place than Kerala. It would be a final for Chennai. Now, they’re under pressure because we are near them. We are under pressure because we need to win away,” said Juan Pedro Benali.  

He also stated that his team will try their best to get a result in the next game. “We’ll see, not easy, but we are the Wolves of the Northeast, we’ll try our best. We have nothing to lose, absolutely nothing to lose. If we win, congratulations, great. We have 90% to be in the playoffs. If we don’t win, we will have the head up and be proud of what we’re doing.”

Thoughts on the game

Sharing his thoughts on the game, Juan Pedro Benali said, “Well, the first minute we could score and after that, we just were sloppy a little bit, very hot. We didn’t read the game very well, but the second half changed.

“The players understood a little bit what was going on and we had the game. We had two or three chances in the first half to score and also they had chances to score.”

Importance of win

Speaking about the importance of this win, Juan Pedro Benali said that his team tries their best to win in every match, but silly mistakes, inexperience and problems have cost them a lot of points this season.

“I tell you the truth, we’re doing it every single game. We never think about the two games or three games in the final. We always try to go to the best, to the next game. Problems, of course, sometimes the other team plays also and we make some silly mistakes due to inexperience, young and pressure sometimes. This is what happened.” 

He also added that nobody expected his side to be fighting for a place in the playoffs, but it’s happening. “We are in the position we deserve. In the end, we are a team that didn’t play bad football, we were supposed to be higher. Nobody, nobody believes that NorthEast would play the last two games for a playoff. We are there, that’s why we must be proud.

“Whatever happens, we must be proud and I’m sure if we go to the playoffs, we will be a tough team to beat, but if we don’t go to the playoffs, we will have a very good team with experience next season,” exclaimed the NorthEast United boss.

Gurmeet’s performance

The head coach was quizzed about how he revived Gurmeet Singh, who came into the team after a disastrous season with his previous club. Juan Pedro Benali reflected, “Don’t forget that he didn’t come to a new team, he was in the team before. Many players know him very well. What is very important is that we have a great dressing room. The group of players are fantastic, they’re very nice lads. When he came inside the dressing room, he found the family, he found a nice group, they welcomed him very well.” 

Moreover, he also mentioned that everyone around the team helped Gurmeet and therefore he is giving everything for the team. “The team, the management, administration, everybody is helping, medical staff, everybody is helping to welcome him, trying to help him in everything he needs, he found himself at home. Now, of course, when a player feels nice at home, surrounded by nice people, what will he do? Give everything and today we see it,” Benali concluded.

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