Materazzi questions journalists about the game, while Farias expresses happiness

Marco Materazzi was visibly frustrated by the referee’s decisions

NorthEast United clinched their first three points of the tournament in a controversial win against Chennaiyin FC. The match a saw high voltage encounter between the players and also threw in a showdown between managers. A flurry of cards was dished out in the match which included 6 yellows and one red for Chennaiyin while there were four bookings were recorded for the home side.

Coach Marco Materazzi has visibly unhappy with how the match turned out to be and visibly expressed his dissatisfaction. In the post match conference that followed he requested to swap roles with journalists and asked questions about the game and about the referee. He asked the media as neutral fans, if they were genuine penalties.

After a point of time when the media enquired about his strategy behind benching key players like Mendoza and Elano, Materazzi replied: “It was to prove that we are the best team and today everyone showed that we are best.

“The only thing I regret is that even if it would have been a draw game, it would have been a loss for us. But with the energy we put in today we showed that we are a great team. We tried to be there but the whole world saw the game.’ He added.

When enquired about what happened on the touch line between him and his opposition coach, the ex Italian defender said: “Nothing. I was in my place and he was not. And the best thing in sport is to know how to win.”

NorthEast United coach Cesar Farias on the other hand was jubilant after the win and stressed on the fact that his team deserved the win. Speaking in the post match conference, he said: “I have expressed before to you guys that we have worked to fight adversities.

“We did a great pre season; we have found great chemistry and high confidence for the group. Even though we lost three games, we knew we did many positive things to get out of this situation.

“Today we were focused. We worked with confidence and faith. We continue to believe in Indian soccer. We believe in this league. We came here to work with love and passion. Today is a new starting point for this team.

“Today we have Aibor coming back from the national team and we had Holicharan finally healthy to play. We also had Andre Baike playing well. As a team you can win or lose, but they believe in what they are doing. We deserved the win.

“Now we know that we were not the worst when we lost the three games. Now we are not even the best because we won.”

When asked about the conversation rate and his team which was still poor, Farias seemed confident as he said: ‘When you face difficulties, you have to know how to put up with things and fill yourself with patience. Football is not only about intensity and courage. It’s for smart people, it’s for strategy.

Today our team found our way to side of the game in the right moments. Like I said, it’s not only a starting point for this team. But the fact that we kept a clean sheet against a team that was scoring the most number of goals in the tournament is important. We kept Nicholas in the bench so that he could start fresh. What we are lacking is to have the full squad and the ability to rotate players.

Let’s hope that all the issues that we faced at the beginning of the game, we do not face them again.’