Emiliano Alfaro cut a distraught figure after NorthEast United FC’s 1-0 loss against Kerala Blasters FC in the final league stage match of Hero Indian Super League 2016 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Sunday. CK Vineeth’s 66th-minute goal proved to be enough for Kerala to enter the semi-finals at the expense of the Highlanders, who finish fifth in the table with 18 points from their 14 games. NorthEast’s top-scorer this year with five goals, Alfaro hit the woodwork during the game but couldn’t prevent his side from narrowly missing out on the semi-finals. The 28-year-old, who completed one key pass and two successful take-ons during the game, spoke to indiansuperleague.com after the match. Here are the excerpts from the interview.What are your thoughts on today’s match?Well, today’s game was a really hard match for us and they knew before the game that with a draw they will qualify and we did our best. Sometimes playing good and sometimes not so good but we tried till the end and that’s all that I can say.You have completed a whole season here, so how has the experience been?The season was good and it would have been be fantastic if we had reached the semis but sadly we could not make it and this is a fantastic team and fantastic city. Maybe next year they will make it to the semi-finals. The people there and the city deserve to reach the semi-finals and I hope they will reach the semi-finals [next year].Any message for your NorthEast fans…I would like to say thanks to the fans and would also like to say thank you to all the staff and I hope in the future we can make everybody happy and reach the semi-finals.