We must move on from this defeat and focus on our next five games: Manuel Marquez of Hyderabad FC

Manuel Marquez, head coach of Hyderabad FC, was dissatisfied with his team’s first-half performance in Tuesday’s 1-2 loss to ATK Mohun Bagan in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) at the Athletic Stadium in Bambolim, Goa.

ATK Mohun Bagan scored two goals in three minutes, thanks to Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh, to guarantee they received their entire allotment of points. Hyderabad got one back through Australian midfielder Joel Chianese, but they were unable to equalise as the ATKMB defence slammed the door on them.

Hyderabad FC continues to dominate the rankings, at least for the time being, with 26 points after 15 games, while the Mariners have climbed back into the top four with 23 points after 13 games.

Do you think the better team won today?

In the first half, ATKMB played better than us. The second half was totally opposite, especially after the two goals we reacted very well. ATKMB deserved the first half. But we attacked a lot in the second half, and we played well throughout the game. So, we deserved to win the match.

You made a lot of changes at half-time and then early on in the second part, were you not happy with the team composition? 

No, I was not happy. Because we didn’t play well in the first half. In some moments, we were totally alone with the ball, and we lose the goal. We lost today, but still five games to go and we have to think about the next game that is against Bengaluru FC next Friday.

ATKMB had two key players injured in the first half. Do you think you could have taken advantage of that?

Yes, because you don’t prepare for one game and think that you will lose two players in the in the first half. But the players who entered in the pitch were very good players. We should have taken the advantage of the situation, but we didn’t play well especially in the first half.