NorthEast United FC kept their unbeaten record in 2019-’20 going after a 1-1 draw against Jamshedpur FC at the JRD Tata Sports Complex on Monday. The league’s leading goal-scorer, Sergio Castel scored the opener in the 28th minute and Panagiotis Triadis hit the equaliser for the Highlanders in the final minute of normal time.
NorthEast head coach Robert Jarni was pleased with the performance.
“This is a great result for us. We knew this is what is to be expected here. As I said before, for me, this is the best team in India. One point here is very good for us,” he said after the match.
“In the first-half, we played very good defensively. We made a few mistakes, three to four mistakes, and we gave Jamshedpur opportunities. But we lacked quality in the attack. In the second-half, we were down 1-0. We gave it our all, put in the attacking players and showed a lot of character,” the Croatian added.
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Jamshedpur head coach Antonio Iriondo however, was left ruing the decision-making by the officials.
“Both teams used all the tools in their possession to win the match. I think we had more ball possession. We could have had a penalty but the referee missed it. We lost two points tonight,” the Spaniard said.
“In this league all the teams are similar and matches are close. All teams are playing well. There were some decisions that didn’t do it justice. Hopefully, by the end of the season, we get some luck with respect to the decisions,” he added.
Iriondo also hoped that his star striker Castel is not injured seriously after being substituted late in the match with a swollen ankle.
“At this point, we don’t want to miss two players like him and Piti. Hope we can get him back soon,” Iriondo said
