NorthEast United FC brought themselves back into the semis scramble as they edged FC Pune City 1-0 in their 2016 Hero Indian Super League encounter at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday. The Highlanders needed to win this match to keep themselves in the hunt and Romaric’s goal in the 81st minute proved to be enough for Nelo Vingada’s men. Speaking to the media after the game, the Portuguese head coach was effusive in praise of his players.“As we could see it was an intense game. So today I have to say we won because of our spirit and our ability to fight. I can say, yes, we were lucky on one or two occasions but overall we played better and created a lot of opportunities in the second half. And I want to say NorthEast United are back and still there is a possibility for everyone to qualify and today our team changed a bit in defence as three players could not play,” Vingada, whose team moved to sixth in the standings with 14 points from 11 games, said.Over 18,000 home fans cheered on the Highlanders and Vingada expressed his gratitude. “I want to say thank you to the fans who came out today to support us and they believed as well as we did that we can still qualify and they helped us to win today,” the 63-year-old said.“…I want to tell the real followers of NorthEast United that we will continue to fight till the end and we will go in with the mindset of winning in our remaining three games of the league stage.”NorthEast went into the game without defenders Robin Gurung, Gustavo Lazzaretti and Nirmal Chettri. Vingada provided a fitness update on the trio. “All played against Kolkata with injuries. Next game is on Saturday so we will see. Gustavo is in better shape than others but we can’t take risks regarding getting them back as it can kill them for the rest of the competition and I think it will be difficult against Chennaiyin [on November 26 in Chennai].”The pitch in Guwahati was heavily steeped in dew on Tuesday and Vingada admitted that its slipperiness played a part in their win. “Yes [it did indeed play a role], the pitch was slippery and because of the weather change there was more humidity and they did not need to put a lot of water on the pitch before the game. Today, it was very slippery and the next time we must take care against Delhi [on November 30] as this is our home game,” he said.
