Steve Coppell’s ATK secured their first win of the 2018-19 Hero Indian Super League (ISL) campaign in an enthralling match, where they managed to edge past Delhi Dynamos FC 2-1 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday. Super-sub El Maimouni Noussair’s 84th-minute striker proved to be the winner for the visitors, while Balwant Singh opened the scoring for them. Skipper Pritam Kotal was the sole goal-scorer for the home side.

At the post-match press conference, Josep Gombau, head coach of Delhi, shared his views after his side fell victims of defeat. “I think we played a good game. We didn’t start well in the first half and ATK had more of the ball, but in the last 20 minutes of the first half, we started to play well. Definitely, in the second half, we had a good game and we had our chances to win the game, but in one transition they scored the goal. In my opinion, early in the second half, we were much better.”

Speaking on the same strain, the Spaniard added, “Look, we tried to build up at the back and in the very beginning, we gave them many chances and we gave the ball to them. But, in the second half and the last 20 minutes of the first half, I think that we played well and created many chances.”

From ATK’s end, head coach Steve Coppell was present to address the media and shed some light on his team’s first win of the season. “I thought we played well for most of the game. After they equalised, we lost it for a little bit, in terms of the threat of the game. But all in all, we wanted to try and get forward and certainly, in the first half, I was very pleased with the way we played. A superb goal by Balwant put us in front and we knew that we still had 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 and we managed to do that. So, at the end of the day, I’m very pleased to have a win at this stage of the season.”

The Englishman was impressed by Indian prodigy Komal Thatal’s amazing performance, who won the ‘Emerging player’ award for the match. He had some great words for the young lad, “Komal did really well. He’s got energy, he’s got legs, he’s skilful on the ball and he likes having possession. I just felt we needed something like that out wide, to give us an out ball and also to try and provide some ammunition for Kalu (Uche). He was the focal point of our game.”

Read the match report here