The first Maharashtra derby of Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 ended with late drama as FC Pune City registered a 2-1 victory over Mumbai City FC at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. The visitors would have felt hard done by after Emiliano Alfaro scored the winner for Pune in the dying minutes of the game. Hero of the match, Gerson Vieira of Mumbai, spoke to indiansuperleague.com after the game and shared his thoughts on the heart-breaking loss. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

What do you have to say about tonight’s loss?

It’s really difficult to lose a match like this since we had the result in our hands but lost. But we will rise again and I hope we will win the next match.

Was it expected that in-form Pune would score a late winner?

We never expected (them) to score like this but we will work more to avoid this kind of situations.

Do you have any specific preparations for your next game against Kerala Blasters FC?

I don’t think so; we just have to listen to our general. We have a very good head coach, so we have to listen as he has good solutions to finding another way to victory.

How was the atmosphere tonight?

I just love the way the crowd here in India behave and it is a pleasure to be here.