NorthEast United FC slumped to their fourth straight loss in the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20 after a 1-0 defeat to Mumbai City FC at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday. The Highlanders fell behind to a Diego Carlos goal in the 44th minute and couldn't find a way back into the contest. The result was also a huge blow for the team's top four ambitions.

Goal scoring has been a big issue for NorthEast this season, with the team managing just nine goals so far this campaign. Addressing the shortcoming, NorthEast head coach Robert Jarni, at the post-match press conference, said, “We haven’t been scoring too many goals. We have been conceding goals because of our mistakes. It’s hard to say what is going wrong.”

Analysing the match, the Croat opined, “First half we played well. We also played well in the first 15 minutes of the second half but after that we became impatient and failed to control the situation.”

“We had some very good chances in the first half but we couldn’t score. In the second half, it was very hard to play. We tried to score but we were not in control. We wanted to score with all our heart but couldn’t,” he added.

Illustrating the few positive takeaways from the contest, the Croat noted, “Few good things about today’s match were the performances of Ninthoi Meetei and Lalengmawia. They had a good game and we can count on them for the future. They need to keep on working and the future is bright. Federico Gallego also had a good game after his long injury layoff.”

The defeat makes reaching the top four all the more difficult for the Highlanders. Asked what he expects of his team moving forward, Jarni stated, “The players need to be more aggressive and play with their hearts to win games. They have been doing everything exceptionally well, except for one thing – scoring.”

Read the Match Report here.