Disappointed to lose the derby but proud of the players: SC East Bengal’s Mario Rivera
Mario Rivera was disappointed following his team’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of bitter rivals ATK Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Saturday at the PJN Stadium, Goa.
Mario Rivera was disappointed following his team’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of bitter rivals ATK Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Saturday at the PJN Stadium, Goa.
SCEB took the lead early in the second half but was put back down after a 30-minute hat-trick by Kiyan Giri. This result keeps the Red and Gold Brigade at the bottom of the table with only nine points but takes their city-rivals, ATK Mohun Bagan into the semi-final spots.
Mario Rivera addressed the media after the match.
Here are some excerpts from his press conference:
How disappointing is the result?
Yeah always, when you lose there is a little disappointment but we have to be proud of our players, they fight a lot and we could have won the match, we played how we wanted but, we have a very bad situation with the injury in the first half we missed the only option to turn for defense and it was exploited.
Did you think about shutting down the match, when you were leading?
Yeah we wanted to, of course, we wanted to keep the result but they scored, they drove very fast and we didn't have time to adjust and if we got some time between our first goal and the equalizer, it would have been a very different match.
What did you make of Lalrinliana Hnamte’s attempt which Amrinder Singh saved and the late goal-line clearance by Hira Mondal?
Yeah, the middle of the second half was a little open and on we had a chance to go to win and we tried to do that and had a very clear chance to lead again the score and in if you want to win sometimes, you concede the chance and we could stop this situation but at the end, we couldn't.
What are the positives you can take from this game?
The positives are the attitude and the fight of our players. They followed the plan that we wanted. We had bad luck with the injury in the first half but we have to be proud of our match and we are ready to go for the next match and try to win.