NorthEast United FC succumbed to their fourth successive defeat in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 when FC Pune City put them to the sword with a 5 – 0 score-line at the Shree Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune on Saturday. Brazilian goal-machine Marcelinho hit a hat-trick as Ashique Kuruniyan and Adil Khan also found the net.

The Highlanders though had their fair share of chances and were left to rue missed opportunities. Speaking to the media at the post-match press conference was their head coach Joao de Deus, who couldn’t hide his disappointment. “It was a bad day,” he said. “We had a terrible day. I feel it was lack of intensity. We conceded the goals by situations that were not usual.”

Deus also felt that it was once more NorthEast’s inability to take their chances that brought about their downfall. “If I remember we had four or five chances to score,” the 41-year-old stated. “But the problem is, our game is always the same. We create, we have chances, we don’t score and then the opponents score because we make mistakes.”

The result leaves the Highlanders languishing second from bottom, but the Portuguese tried to be optimistic about the situation. “We are in a difficult position of course,” he admitted. “We have a lot of matches left. Let’s see what we can to do. We have to be better in the future.”

Meanwhile, FC Pune City’s assistant coach Vladica Grujic refused to be too pleased with the result, and admitted that their opponents were unlucky on the night. “Look, I am not so satisfied with the second half, but first half was okay,” the Serbian said. “In the second half we did not play that well. The difference was that we scored the goals. The opponent is a very strong team and very disciplined. They should have scored three times in the first. But they did not have luck. But we are happy to finish this year with five goals.”