NorthEast United FC coach Cesar Farias admitted that conceding two penalties went a long way towards his team’s 5-1 defeat against hosts Mumbai City FC in the 2015 Hero Indian Super League on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to the media at the DY Patil Stadium after the match, the Venezuelan said: “When you lose like that, not much analysis you do. The team was doing pretty well, until first, in fact two penalties. After the first penalty, the team responded. The team adjusted to the situation and got back to the game.

“The second penalty, I think, brought the guys down emotionally. There were two handballs, but we’re not saying that they weren’t penalties. We’re saying there were no fouls. If you see the videos, you’ll see there is no willingness in the handballs.

“But they [Mumbai City FC] were a little more solid today. We’ll have to see and analyse the situations in the game and how they impacted the performance.”

For Mumbai Sunil Chhetri scored a hat-trick, the first ever by an Indian. He converted both penalties successfully. Sony Norde and Frantz Bertin also succeeded in hitting back of the net for the home sid4e.

Prior to the match, Farias had said that they had no specific plans for Chhetri and when reminded of his pre-match comment regarding the India striker, Farias said: “We did not concede goals until the penalties. The penalties were the reasons the game got open. We’re not taking credit away from him. Based on the results, people might think there was a good and a bad team out there. We know it’s not like that and our job is to move forward. And leave this in the past.”