Atlético de Kolkata played out their second draw of Hero Indian Super League 2016 against Mumbai City FC at the Mumbai Football Arena on Tuesday evening. It was an entertaining match that saw ATK come from behind courtesy of a Javi Lara goal to salvage a point after a Matias Defederico strike in the 27th minute had given the hosts the lead. The draw puts ATK third in the table and head coach Jose Molina was happy with a point in spite of what he deemed as a lacklustre first half from his side.“We did not have a very good first half. Our performance in the first 45 minutes wasn’t really good. But they scored one goal and had 2-3 more clear chances to score. We spoke at half time that we have to improve because the game is not over since it is 1-0; that we have to fight back in the second half. So in the second half it was a very good performance, we were the better team on the pitch. I think we deserved the one point. So one half to each team with the final result a draw. I think is a fair result,” Molina told reporters at the post-match press conference.The former Villarreal manager made a double change at half time opting to bring on Abinash Ruidas and Stephen Pearson for Bikramjit Singh and Iain Hume. Molina elaborated on the rationale behind the changes. “It was a tactical switch. The first 45 minutes were not good. I was not happy with our performance. So we tried to change some things. We tried to play a different formation. I think with the players that came on in the second half and with the help of everybody we did a great job. I think we deserved the point,” said Molina.He added: “We changed the formation in the second half. We played in a different way. We brought Stephen Pearson and Javi Lara in the middle to help Borja Fernandez. Accordingly I think the second half was better for us as we dominated. So yes the changes worked for us.”Kolkata’s goal came 10 minutes after Pronay Halder was sent off by the referee for a second yellow card. When asked how it impacted the game, Molina said: “I think the referee’s decision to pull out the second yellow card against the Mumbai City FC player was an advantage for us playing against 10 men. But the Mumbai City FC defenders defended really well in the second half. I think we really deserved the point. Maybe we could have scored another goal. But we didn’t have any clear chance since the Mumbai City FC players defended very well. They have a great goalkeeper too. I think it was a good game for everyone.”
