Chennaiyin lacked experience: Materazzi

A late equaliser from Shouvik Ghosh, cancelled out Dudu’s exhilarating performance that saw the sides split the points, leaving Chennaiyin in seventh spot with 15 points and a game to play. Chennaiyin coach Marco Materazzi regretted his side buckling under late pressure yet again. “This is football and I feel sorry for my players as they fought hard and deserved to win. NorthEast came here for a draw and in Kolkata we conceded a goal in the last minute and against Mumbai we conceded one goal in the 87th minute, same thing with Pune, we conceded a free kick in the 84th minute and they scored, and today in the 95th minute,” Materazzi said. 

Elaborating on his side’s propensity to concede late goals this year, Materazzi added: “Well, we are a new team and maybe it was due to a lack of experience and if Pune scored an incredible goal like that and even Mumbai, then there is not much you can do but as I said before I am sad for my players and I want to congratulate them.” Materazzi was also quick to jump to the defence of his leaky backline that has conceded 20 goals, most by any team so far this season. “So when you concede a lot of goals it is not only the defence. You can’t blame one department. When we conceded the first goal, it started with Hanghal not tackling Wellington strong enough. 

And what I regret is us not going for the fourth goal as Raphael was dribbling and trying to get past five players, he could have given a long ball to Mendy but as I say this is football and there is not much we can do about it now,” the Italian added. 

When asked what lies ahead with regard to his association with Chennaiyin FC, Materazzi said: “Well, right now it is the club which has to take the call to evaluate me and if they think that this year’s performance is my fault and my mistake, then I will step out. If they think I have done well overall, then we can talk about it and I would thank them for all that they have done for me and I have received a lot of love and they will always remain my friends,” he added.

Marcelo Pereira scored a hat-trick while Richard Gadze helped himself to a brace as Delhi Dynamos steamrollered past FC Goa 5-1 in their Indian Super League match here on Sunday.  The win sent Delhi Dynamos to the second place on the table with 20 points while FC Goa were ousted from the league and with 11 points, were at the bottom of the table.  It was Goa who took the lead by the half-hour mark when Fulganco Cardozo scored but from then it was only a Delhi show as Pereira scored in the 38th, 48th and 50th minutes while Gadze found the back of the net in the 51st and 57th minutes.