KOLKATA: Zico, the Brazilian legend in-charge of FC Goa’s title tilt in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League (ISL), has taken multiple shots at Salt Lake Stadium’s artificial turf letting authorities know his displeasure and blaming it directly for Narayan Das’ injury, who he says, might not play the next match.
Atletico de Kolkata and FC Goa fought out a tense, but dour, 0-0 draw in their first leg of the ISL semi-final.
Revealing the nature of Das’ injury in the post-match press conference, Zico explained, “I think it will be difficult for him to play the next match since he got a serious injury. We will have to wait for the doctor’s report. We hope that it is not a serious injury. These kinds of injuries happen in leagues of such level. Also this kind of ground is not good for professional games.”
Quizzed if he was satisfied with the result, the Seleccao World Cupper answered, “As I have said before, it is a game of 180 minutes. First 90 minutes are over and now we have to see how the next 90 minutes go.”
“It will be a difficult game as it was before. These are two strong teams but we will try to have a levelled game,” surmised Zico, when asked if the game in the second leg becomes a lot tougher.
Zico believed that even though Atletico de Kolkata had the most number of fouls in the ISL, they weren’t as physical as expected.
“The games in the last phases are always very compact. It is always very difficult. Of course when we have to play on an artificial turf it gets more difficult to control the ball. But yes we were expecting a physical game like last time,” replied the 61 year-old.
The former Flamengo superstar was also hopeful of closing the semi-finals with a win at their home ground, whilst sealing progress to the final of the competition, whilst maintaining that the exhibition of football would’ve been better if the pitch had natural turf.
“I am 100 per cent confident and I hope that we win the last match. I am very satisfied with the way my team played here. I don’t think that the turf is bad just for Goa, but it is bad for both the teams. We would have been able to display a better game if it was natural turf,” he concluded.
