The Chennai City FC camp looked a broken side.
Hat-trick man Pedro Manzi was inconsolable and it required a lot of persuasion from team officials and tournament organisers to get him to receive the Man-of-the-Match award.
“I am terribly upset. We should have taken three points from this match,” Manzi, said.
“Our philoshophy has been quite simple. We always go for a win and there are no draws or losses in mind. A draw means we have lost, so there is huge disappointment,” head coach Akbar Nawas said.
“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),” Nawas added.
With the fans back home feeling the pain, 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 the attack. 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 chances.
“We are playing to a style and trying to take the standard of football to a different level,” he said.
