Satisfied with the result, says Manolo Marquez after SC East Bengal draw

The gaffer spoke after witnessing a late comeback from his side.

Hyderabad FC came away with a point against SC East Bengal after a 1-1 draw in the ongoing Indian Super League 2020/21 campaign. A late injury-time leveller from Aridane Santana cancelled out Bright Enobakhare's opener for the Kolkata giants. Meanwhile, Manolo Marquez' men are now at 24 points, having played a game more than FC Goa and NorthEast United. 

During the post match interaction with the media, the tactician answered several gripping questions and opined on important talking points.

Assessment of the match

Hyderabad drew their ninth game of the season, the most by any team after 17 fixtures. “We are satisfied because we equalised at the last moment but, I think that again in the first half, we were not able to score before the opponent. In the second half we shot the post and in the counter-attack, the first time they arrived, they scored. But at the end, when you attack with all the players, there is a lot of disorder, the other team is nervous too and we got one important point," Marquez said.

A word on the performance

https://youtu.be/WMPG7DReX24

Manolo Marquez gave respect to SC East Bengal upon being asked if he was satisfied with his team’s performance against a team lower in the league standings. He said that, “East Bengal have the best squad in the league, for me. I think we are playing very well practically all the season. With all the respect to East Bengal, I know they started (their preparation to the season) very late. I think they deserve more points in the table.”

Nerves ahead of the business end of the campaign

The tactician also expressed contentment with the performance and shared how he is feeling ahead of the final few yards in the league. He was quoted as saying, “Now it is the end of the competition, there are only three games. Of course, it's very difficult to win the games. Our fixture schedule is very difficult in comparison with the other teams, but we will continue to fight. I am very proud and satisfied because we are in the fight for the top-four and only three games to play.”

Subrata Paul’s loan move

The custodian for the opposition, Subrata Paul left on a loan move to SC East Bengal in the middle of the season and the player managed important saves tonight against his parent club. When asked if the loan move proved costly, Marquez said that, “Subrata is a great goalkeeper, and I think this is the same case as Adil (Khane), both are fantastic professionals and these kinds of players, if they don’t have the chance to play in our team because of the performance Kattimani and the center-backs, for me it is better that they go on loan.”

“I don’t know if Subrata played good or bad (tonight), we are very happy with the four goalkeepers we have and Kattimani for me is playing one of his best seasons.” he continued to add.