Habas: Chennai were hungrier than us

| DECEMBER 14, 2015, 12:00 AM IST

AGENCIES

CHENNAI

Following a 3-0 defeat in the first leg of their 2015 Indian Super League semi-final against Chennaiyin FC in Pune on Saturday, Atlético de Kolkata head coach Antonio Lopez Habas admitted the Super Machans were too hot to handle. Marco Materazzi’s men went into the match at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium with intent and scored through Bruno Pelissari, Jeje and Stiven Mendoza to put themselves in the driver’s seat ahead of the second leg on December 16 at the Salt Lake Stadium.

“We would like to congratulate Chennai. They played well and they were more aggressive than us and they were hungrier and I think that’s what went wrong. We weren’t as hungry as Chennai,” Habas told reporters after the game.

However, the Spaniard refused to write his team off. “We have 90 minutes more [in Kolkata]. We conceded three goals today, we can also score three then. Let’s see,” Habas said.

Habas, whose team had beaten Chennai in both their home and away games earlier in the season, also dismissed overconfidence as the reason behind the defeat. “As I told you, there was nothing wrong. Chennai were more aggressive and hungry, that is what went wrong. We didn’t have any reply in the game.”

Both Elano and Mehrajuddin Wadoo, suspended for Saturday’s game, will return for Chennaiyin for the second leg and when asked if ATK had their work cut out in Kolkata on that account, Habas said, “I have to concentrate on my team. I cannot speak for Chennai.”

The match also saw ATK midfielder Borja Fernandez going off in the first half due to injury and being replaced by Serbian striker Dejan Lekic. Habas explained that he had brought on the Serbian hoping to cancel out Pelissari’s strike earlier in the match.

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