FC Pune City suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of NorthEast United FC in their 2016 Hero Indian Super League encounter at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday. However despite the defeat, they maintained their fourth position in the standings with 15 points from 12 games. The Stallions started strongly in the match but injury to Momar Ndoye in the 29th minute broke their momentum and the visitors didn’t look like the same team for the rest of the match. Pune head coach Antonio Habas admitted the injury to the Senegalese midfielder did set them back in a big way.“In the beginning we had the Ndoye injury, so it complicated a lot of things as we were playing well along the left wing. After that both teams had two-three chances. Anyone could have won but NorthEast United won finally. Inside the pitch some things happened which we are not happy about,” Habas told reporters after the match.When asked by a reporter that if he thought the Highlanders were the better team, especially in the second half, Habas said: “I don't know which game you saw. It was not different for us, nor were they stronger than us. We are disappointed with certain things that happened during the match. For the past three years, we have been telling the league to be careful with violent tackles… It was very violent and very hard to play today.”The Stallions now travel to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi to play Kerala Blasters FC on Friday.
