Chennai City FC cut a desolate figure after it failed to preserve a three-goal lead and was held 3-3 by the host NEROCA FC. The hat-trick man Pedro Manzi was inconsolable and refused to stay back to receive the man-of-the-match award.
It summed up the mood of the visitor, which was at the receiving end of one of the biggest comebacks in the tournament so far. The result seemed to have dented its title aspirations.
“I am terribly upset with the result. We should have taken three points from this match,” Manzi, who scored his fourth hat-trick of the tournament, said after the match.
Head coach Akbar Nawas echoed the sentiment. “Our philosophy has been quite simple from the start. We always go for a win and there are no draws or losses in mind. A draw means we have lost, so there is a huge disappointment in the team,” he said before adding, “We have to go back to the drawing board and analyse what went wrong and prepare for the next match (against Shillong Lajong FC at Shillong).”
With the fans back home feeling the pain of the setback, Nawas sought to protect his boys. “Most of my squad, I mean the local players are young and inexperienced and developed nerves in the face of attack. The foreigners in the side have come to integrate the side.
"As a club, we are in the process of development. Please don’t ask us anything about the title or how the loss of two points will affect our championship chances. We are playing to a style and trying to take the standard of football to a different level,” he said.
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