ISL: Habas impressed with Kolkata's intensity, Reid demands better passing from Mumbai

Atletico de Kolkata coach Antonio Lopez Habas had promised intensity from his team and they delivered it in a thumping 3-0 win over Mumbai City FC in the Indian Super League opener.

Goals from Fikru Teferra, Borja Fernandez and Arnal Llibert gave the home team a deserved win, but rather than stress on individuals, Habas chose to praise the overall tenacity of his team.

“We had a 47-day pre-season and are prepared for the physical toll that a tournament like this needs. Overall, I’m impressed with the passing, pressing and intensity of the players on the pitch. They gave their all,” he said.

However, rather than rave about everything, he gave an indication that everything didn’t go according to plan: “In football, everything hardly goes according to plan in one match. But today was about belief in winning and we did that.”

He was also pleased with the discipline his team showed in a match which saw 25 fouls and six yellow cards and will now focus on his players recovering in time for the trip to Guwahati.

Mumbai City FC manager Peter Reid could have chosen from a hat of excuses — from missing his marquee player to leaving Nicolas Anelka out due to a global ban and then seeing his skipper stretchered off early in the match due to a calf injury — but didn’t pick from any of these.

“I’m not out here to make an excuse. The better team won. They played better than us and particularly passed better than us. We could have passed the ball better like we did in the second half when Diego (Nadaya) started getting on the ball more often, but that second goal killed us off — from then we were just chasing the game,” he said.

Reid picked out goalkeeper Subrata Paul, centre back Pavel Cmovs and Lalrindika Ralte as his best players on the pitch and bemoaned the situations through which Kolkata scored.

“Take for the example the second goal where we had possession and it just falls to Borja who scores a great goal,” he said.

Reid’s team next take on Pune City FC on 18 October — against whom he would ideally like to see his team convert possession (57-43 vs Kolkata) to goals — something that Kolkata’s tight midfield didn’t allow them to do.