Chennaiyin FC head coach Marco Materazzi congratulated NorthEast United FC for their fantastic first half performance after his side were trounced 3-0 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium on Thursday night and conceded that the Highlanders deserved to win the game.“They came out and showed a lot of intent and desire in the first half and scored three goals in 20 minutes. I complimented them and told them that they deserved to win with a performance like this,” the Italian gaffer said at the post match press conference.“We missed key defenders in the Mumbai game also but today our attitude wasn't right. I wasn't happy with my team's performance after the Delhi game and today's first half also wasn't good enough. But in the second half we showed heart and with a bit of luck, we could have scored,” the 2006 World Cup winner explained. “Our focus now is completely on Kerala. We will try to recover and hopefully get some players back before that game like Bojan (Djordjic) and Gouramangi (Singh),” Materazzi added.When asked if he would be playing the next game to cover up for the deficiencies in defence, the Italian replied, “I have a niggle too, so I will not play. (Alessandro) Nesta will be joining us, so hopefully, we will have a balanced defence. Not just the midfield, the forwards, defence, everybody had a tough time in the first half. We are still on top but we have to show better attitude in the final three group games. Today, I had to play (Eric) Djemba Djemba in the defence and that was not what I ideally wanted as it is not his ideal position.”
