Sameehg Doutie was thrilled to enter the final of Hero Indian Super League 2016 following Atlético de Kolkata’s 0-0 draw against Mumbai City FC in the second leg of the first semi-final at the Mumbai Football Arena on Tuesday. The South African winger came on as a late substitute as ATK looked to protect their 3-2 lead on aggregate with Mumbai pushing hard for a goal in the dying minutes of the game. Doutie has been an important player for Kolkata this year having scored twice besides also having three assists to his name. The 27-year-old spoke to indiansuperleague.com in an exclusive interview after the match and shared his thoughts. Here are the excerpts.What was the plan going into the game?We knew we had to win the game but unfortunately we could not win. But we tried and we knew we had the upper hand and we conceded the red card early in the game which was unfortunate but credit to our defence and the whole team as they were excellent and this is character as we were a man down, so we deserve to be here.How does it feel to reach the final, your first with ATK?We are very happy but we don’t want to get too excited as we know there is one more hurdle in Kochi and we will see who is our opponent and start preparing.There is a high possibility of Kerala being there. What do you have to say about that?It doesn’t matter as all four teams in the semi-finals were excellent but this is football and only two teams can go to the final and also in the final there can be only one winner, and it is going to be tough and what happened today was very unfortunate and one team has to lose. It is not nice [talking about a scuffle that broke out between Mumbai and ATK players after the match], since young kids are watching, so this should not happen.Any word on the strong ATK support in the crowd today…We appreciate the support and even our supporters in Kolkata and we will continue fighting for them.
