ISL News: Colomba Pleased with Pune's Display After Draw, While Nagul Feels Chennayin Were Unlucky to Drop Points

FC Pune City manager Franco Colomba says that he is satisfied with his side's display following their 1-1 draw against Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on Tuesday.

After breaking the deadlock very early on in the game through Kostas Katsouranis, Pune came under heavy pressure as Chennaiyin looked to find the equaliser and even score the winner. 

However, a combination of good luck and excellent defending saw Pune weather the storm and hold on for the draw, with Stiven Mendoza Valencia scoring the equaliser, after Elano missed a penalty and Chennaiyin also hit the woodwork on two occasions.

And Colomba feels that his side played well to hold on to a draw against such a strong team like Chennaiyin FC.

"It was a good point. We were up against a big team," the Italian told ISL's official website.

"They are strong; technically, physically and tactically. They have many big players but I'm happy with the way we played today. I can definitely say it's not two points lost.

"It was a difficult match, and I'm satisfied how my team and defence played and it was my up to my expectation."

Meanwhile, Chennaiyin FC assistant manager Vivek Nagul rued his side's bad luck against Pune, feeling that they dropped two points as they were clearly the better side on Tuesday.

"It's two points lost," Nagul told ISL's official website. "It's been the same story, as it was against NorthEast [United] and against [Atletico de] Kolkata.

"We should have scored nearly four or five goals. We studied their game and the matches they played; we were expecting to score with our strikers' abilities, our midfielders' abilities, with the attack force we have up front."

Nevertheless, Nagul says that he is happy with his side's defence, reserving special praise for Chennaiyin player-manager Marco Materazzi and former Arsenal and Manchester United defender Mikaël Silvestre.

"They did a fantastic job today. They won all the aerial balls, won all fifty-fifty chances and played the ball forward," he added.

"This is what Materazzi was doing in Milan, in Italy, and Indians and people of Pune got to watch him. It's amazing. We saw a master of defence at work today. Silvestre too was good, you saw him going up with the ball so many times. I'm pleased with them."

Finally, Nagul, despite admitting he was surprised to see Elano drag his penalty wide of the target,said he is certain that the Brazilian will put this behind game him and do well in the next fixture.

"I had already written down 1-1 as the score in my notepad, we all expected him to score," he added. "But he's a professional, and he put that behind and was ready for more."