Idea was to win the game and avoid extra-time, reveals Antonio Habas

The Spaniard took pride in his side's crucial victory on the night.

ATK Mohun Bagan booked a berth in the final of the Indian Super League (ISL) with a gritty 2-1 win over NorthEast United on Tuesday. Goals from David Williams and Manvir Singh in both halves were enough to get the job done. However, the Mariners did survive a late scare when VP Suhair pulled one back and Luis Machado missed one from the penalty spot! Despite undergoing a real rollercoaster of a ride during the game, Antonio Habas came out of it a pleased man.

Thoughts on the nervy game

He said, “I’m a very happy man right now. I’m happy with the performance of the players and the staff too! The team had great character and a good heart in the game. That is important when it’s not possible to play well. In football, character and intensity are very important and the team had that today.”

The Mariners dominated the first half, but the Highlanders piled the pressure with persistent attacks in the second half. When asked about whether his team were feeling the pressure during that scenario, Antonio Habas said, “Maybe we created the pressure for ourselves because some of the players were already thinking about the final. This is a problem, no precision and problems with the fouls and free-kicks. But in open play, we had no problem in the match – only in free-kicks and long-balls could they trouble us.”

Attacking mentality

ATKMB were extremely dominant in the first half, attempting 16 shots to breach the NorthEast defence and the Spaniard was asked whether that was a pre-planned strategy or not. He answered, “Yeah we knew that the idea is to win the game and not to play for a draw because we did not want to go to extra-time. Now the players are very tired and haven’t recovered well from the last game so the idea was to avoid extra-time. The first 45 minutes, the team had extreme intensity to score and get the tie sealed.”

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Praise for NorthEast United

Despite coming out on top, Antonio Habas sung big praise of the character and spirit shown by NorthEast United over the two legs. He said, “NorthEast United had a fantastic season. They were a difficult team to defeat. They had strong players in attack and defence and also good players in midfield. It’s not easy for any team to win against them. For us, NorthEast are third in the power rankings this season. I think today we were superior to them and we deserved the win.”

Revenge against Mumbai City FC?

ATK Mohun Bagan have a chance to enact revenge on Mumbai City with the meeting in the final, but the coach refused to talk about it. He said, “I don’t want to talk about the final now. I want to recover the players for that and analyze the situation and compete after that. If this team had one thing, they are very competitive. So it will be very difficult for the opponents on Saturday also.”

Qualifying for AFC competitions

The Mariners also sealed qualification to the AFC Cup 2022 with this win and Antonio Habas reflected on the fact whether that is a big step forward for the club to be a powerhouse in Asian football. “Yes I think that when we came to the club, the team was in 9th and 6th positions over the last two seasons. Last season, we won the league and now we’re in the final. I think that we have to take more step forwards. We have to keep growing every season and keep the level as a top club.”

Experience from a unique season

The Spaniard also gave his honest thoughts on how his experience was of this season of the ISL, which had to be played behind closed doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “Maybe this season was more difficult than the others. Because for five months, the players and the technical staff have had to quarantine alone, with no family and only think about football for 24 hours."

"It’s very difficult to keep calm. We’ve had a fantastic season because the players behaved well, so in terms of the education they deserve all 10 points," he concluded.

Manuel Cascallana's reflections on the team's performance

Further, assistant coach Manuel Cascallana spoke about ATKMB’s defensive weariness after going into the lead and some of the lapses which happened against NorthEast. He said, “When we score the goals, our idea is not to defend or drop back. If you see our substitutions after going up, we make them to score more goals." We don’t want to be there defending long-balls or stuff like that."

"In football, stuff like NorthEast’s chances happen sometimes. Today, they scored from a corner and after that they had a penalty missed. It depends, but our idea is not to score goals and going back to defend the result.”

Manvir Singh on the game and the season as a whole

Man of the Match Manvir Singh also spoke about his thoughts on his performance and ATKMB’s success saying, “Yeah I’m very happy to have scored today and to have helped my team win. The entire team put in an incredible effort even those who were on the bench. Everyone gave our 100% and we got our result.”

When speaking about his own personal season, having scored six goals in the campaign, he said, “I’m giving my 100% in every training session and that is giving me rewards in the matches. I’m very happy that I’m scoring and helping my team.”

Manvir also spoke about what different approach the Mariners might opt for in the finals against Mumbai City, who have defeated them twice already this season. He said, “Our final is against Mumbai and we know they are a very good team. We will analyze the mistakes we’ve made against them in recent meetings and will work on improving that. We will give our utmost effort to win the title.”