I am happy with the win, says Antonio Habas
Defending champions, Atletico de Kolkata climbed to the top of the table in the Indian Super League after thrashing FC Goa 4-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium. FC Goa, who went in the game as table toppers after beating Mumbai City FC 7-0 in their last game, fell to an embarrassing defeat themselves.
Sameehg Doutie put in a Man-of-the-Match performance for the home side and was involved in all the goals. The 26-year-old put the home side ahead in the 20th minute from a Jamie Gavilan pass, before setting up Borja Fernandez’s stunning strike a couple of minutes later.
After the break, Doutie won the penalty for his side which was converted by Iain Hume, who scored his sixth goal of the season. Doutie scored his second goal of the game in the 78th minute to make it 4-0 to Atletico de Kolkata.
Speaking during the post-match press conference, Atletico de Kolkata boss looked delighted and highlighted why the win was mentally important for the defending champions, who also kept the first clean sheet this season after 11 games.
"It's the first match where we did not concede any goal... Every time it would be 4-1, 3-2 or 2-1... So it's very important for me mentally," Habas told in the news conference after their fabulous win at the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan.
"I am very happy for the win, especially against the table leaders. Maybe they dominated first five minutes but after that we played fantastic football. I'm very happy for the players. Goa have been the most consistent sides."
The former Valencia coach also expressed the importance of the next games against FC Pune City, and he believes now is the time to focus on the next game.
"It's all about teamwork. We have to play Pune next and that's the most important game now. We've two games left and the focus is to win both."
FC Goa coach and Brazilian legend Zico was disappointed with his team’s performance and accepted on the day Atletico de Kolkata were the better side. Earlier, Zico complained in his pre-match press conference of not getting a ground to train before the game.
"In 90 minutes of football, we just played 15 minutes, the rest were them. In football, there's always an element of surprise. But I am here not to make any excuse that we did not practice at the venue so we did not get the result."
"Simply put, Kolkata played better than us. They scored in less than five minutes and we did not react well. We didn't play good football," Zico added.
Zico also expressed the need to focus on the next game suggesting if his team wins the next game, the defeat against Atletico de Kolkata will have little significance.
"It's happened only the second time. We lost to Chennai, but we overcame. If we win the next game, this game will have little significance. If we rectify our mistakes, this game will matter little to us," he said.