Atlético de Kolkata saw their five-match unbeaten run come to an end in their 2015 Hero Indian Super League encounter against Mumbai City FC at the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday. Kolkata headed into the game having already qualified for the semis and were looking to secure top spot in the league table with a win against Mumbai. Antonio Lopez Habas’ men almost came away with a point courtesy of a late equalizer from Arata Izumi but a Sony Norde strike in the final minute of added time meant that the reigning champions will head into their semi-final on the back of a 3-2 loss.Head coach Habas spoke to reporters after the game and dismissed a suggestion that his team was complacent. “I don’t think so. I think it’s mainly due to too much concentration on other things. Too many distractions like the semis and the final. I like to play day-by-day and on a match-wise basis. It’s a different game than a semi-final. It’s day by day in football. The semi-final will be a different game altogether,” Habas told reporters.When asked if his decision to rest mainstays like Ofentse Nato and goalkeeper, Amrinder Singh had any bearing on the outcome of the match, Habas replied in the negative. “It’s not because of the changes; I think the problem was too much external distractions around the team. We needed more concentration. Mumbai were not under pressure and they played freely. Maybe we put too much pressure on ourselves,” he said.The defending champions will now have to wait for the remaining two fixtures of the league stage (FC Pune City vs Chennaiyin FC and Delhi Dynamos FC vs FC Goa) to know who they will be facing in the semi-finals.
