NorthEast United FC edged out Hyderabad FC 1-0 at the GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium on Wednesday to register their first away victory in Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20.

Super-sub Maximiliano Barreiro scored the winning penalty after Shankar Sampingraj was punished for handling the ball in his own team’s penalty box. Speaking to indiansuperleague.com in an exclusive interview, Dutch defender Kai Heerings gave his thoughts on his team’s defensive performance and Asamoah Gyan’s injury. Here are some excerpts.

Your thoughts on today’s match?

I think at the end we deserved the win. As I said before, it was very difficult. We were lucky to get the penalty.

What do you think about your team’s performance defensively?

I think in the last four games we did pretty good, we did it in our style. I think defensively we are super strong, and we have another clean sheet today to prove it.

Did Gyan’s injury add pressure to the team?

We have a lot of good players for when he is out. I think Maxi (Barreiro) did a great job today and the whole team is good so no problem.

Any messages for the travelling NorthEast fans?

We are very proud that we are doing so well for them. We hope to continue like this after the (international) break.

Read the Match report here.