NorthEast United FC head coach Marco Balbul was displeased to have conceded a late goal in their defeat to ATK Mohun Bagan, which dampened their pursuit of the first points in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2022–23.

The Highlanders went down 1-2 against ATK Mohun Bagan at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium, in Kolkata, on Thursday as they slumped to their sixth straight defeat. Liston Colaco opened the scoring for the home side in the first half, but Balbul's side pulled one back late in the second half before after a late winner from Subhashish Bose. 

The 55-year-old, who attended the post-match press conference, expressed his thoughts on how his side should have done better with the ball and that they deserved at least a point out of the game.

Here are the excerpts:

Do you think you deserved some points from this game?

We deserved a point because we created good chances to score and we scored a good goal. But in the last minute, we conceded a goal from a set-piece, and unfortunately, we lost our concentration and we lost a point.

It would have been a massive three points for us after five losses, and it would have been a new way to go forward for my team. I do not like to speak about luck, but everything in the game went against us. We wasted a lot of chances to score goals, and then conceded late in the game.

What are your thoughts on the game?

There was nothing in the first half, but the late goal was a gift. We worked very hard on the pitch, and it was an individual mistake. We lost the ball in the crucial area. We should not give big teams gifts like that and we should have done better with the ball. We should be more confident when we have the ball. We know the key to ATK Mohun Bagan is their counter-attack, and for me, both goals that they scored were gifts.

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2022-2023NorthEast United FC Match 26,ATK Mohun Bagan vs NorthEast United FC