Mumbai City FC fell to a 1 – 0 defeat at the hands of Chennaiyin FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai in their final Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 fixture on Saturday. The Islanders conceded a second-half penalty from which Rene Mihelic scored and made all the difference, as Mumbai finished seventh on the points table. This was midfielder Sanju Pradhan’s 17th game of the season and the 28-year-old spoke to indiansuperleague.com after the match. Here are the excerpts.

Your thoughts on tonight’s match?
It was a very important match for us to be in the top six, but it happens in a football game. We lost the game, we gave our best, all the players gave their best to get the team to top six, but unfortunately we couldn’t make it. We have to give our best in the Super Cup, for the team to play there.

Any reason for the defeat?
I think everyone gave their best. Just because of that one penalty, we conceded a goal and we didn’t get so many chances and that cost us the game.

How did it feel when the equalizer wasn’t counted?
We tried our best to equalize and we could have scored in the last moment, but unfortunately it did not count. But, we are thinking for Super Cup right now.

What was the half-time conversation after 0-0?
It has happened in so many matches. We got so many chances but we couldn’t equalize the chance. This match also had multiple chances, so we had to make more attacks and goal-scoring chances and we’ll have to practise more on that. 

Your thoughts on the upcoming Super Cup?
As an Indian player, it is very important for us because we’re representing ISL now, so we have to take the Super Cup as our next challenge.