Khel Now logo
HomeSportsPKL 11Live Score
Advertisement

Football

Josep Gombau feels Delhi had their chances, Steve Coppell praises Komal Thatal

Published at :October 17, 2018 at 10:16 PM
Modified at :December 13, 2023 at 1:01 PM
Post Featured Image

(Courtesy : Nutra Supplements)

Aniket Surve


The capital club will travel to Kerala for their next fixture, while the West Bengal outfit will travel to Jamshedpur.

ATK registered their first victory of the season ending a two-game game losing streak, thanks to Nassir El Mimouni's 84th minute winner. 

ATK's Balwant Singh scored the opening goal on the night with a mere twenty minutes of the game gone, which was cancelled out by Pritam Kotal in the 54th minute. The game was evenly poised before Mimouni scored to grab all three points for the Kolkata side.

However, Joseph Gombau the head coach of home team Delhi Dynamos, did not look too disappointed by his side's  performance in the post-match press conference as he said, "I think that we played a good game. First half I don't think we started strong. Kolkata kept more ball, but in the last twenty minutes, we started to play well. We had our chance to win the game, but they scored the goal. In my opinion, we were not too bad."

Watch: Delhi Dynamos 1-2 ATK highlights

When questioned about the team not looking to have gelled as a unit the coach replied, "We were okay. We were going to attack them from the back. We had many options, but we didn't see many balls. But, as I said, in the last 20 minutes we played well and had the ball and we were challenging."

The Spaniard also poured heaps of praise on youngster Shubham Sarangi, "He is a very young player. Today he played in the first XI. He played both of our games. He is the player which I think has a good future. He came from our youth team and he is the player I like."

Steve Coppell's side registered their first win and there was no one person more relieved with the performance than him. Coppell was all praises for his team. The ATK coach said, "I think we played well for most of the game. After they equalised, all we wanted is to go forward. In the first half, I'm very pleased with the way we played and a superb goal by Balwant."

As soon as Delhi Dynamos equalised, there was a spell of five-seven minutes where ATK looked miserable and a lot of players were caught out of position or were guilty of giving the ball away too easily. On this the Enhglishman explained, "We knew there is still a job to be done. When they equalised, there was a spell of five minutes where I thought we needed to calm down and retain possession a bit more. So, all in all, today I'm very very pleased."

ALSO READ:

Komal Thatal received his first start and was adjudged as the Emerging Player for the game. "Komal did really well for us. He's got energy, he's got pace, he's got skills. He likes possession of the ball and I felt we needed that a little bit out wide to try and provide some ammunition for Kalu (Uche) upfront. He was really very good today," the tactician said.

[KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]

Coppell then explained his thought process while making the two substitutions that worked for the visitors. While Jayesh assisted, Noussair scored the goal that gave ATK their first three points. "Well, Komal I thought was getting a little bit tired and we had Jayesh there to replace him. Jayesh almost started the game, but we decided not to start him. Jayesh did a great job with fresh legs. Noussair didn't train a lot with the team because of the visa issues. We depended on Everton's pace upfront to run us out of trouble and the combination worked. There are a lot of times when the substitutions don't work."

Delhi Dynamos will travel to the south to battle with mighty Kerala Blasters on 20th October in the hope of registering their first win of the season, while ATK will play Jamshedpur on 21st October.

Advertisement