xtratime Logo

[caption id="attachment_31125" align="alignnone" width="580"] Atletico de Kolkata owner Sourav Ganguly with ISL chairperson Nita Ambani, Abhishek Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor in Mumbai on Tuesday night. Image Source: ISL[/caption]

“Virat has Double the Aggression I had on the Field”, Says Ganguly

Kolkata: Atletico de Kolkata owner Sourav Ganguly heaped high praises on Jose Molina and his team for making it to the 2016 final of Indian Super League (ISL) last night in Mumbai. Atletico de Kolkata made it to their second final in three seasons by virtue of their 3-2 win in the semifinal leg 1 in Kolkata. The Atletico owner, in an impromptu chat with xtratime.in correspondent Debasis Sen, spoke about the semi-final last night, Molina’s strategy, Iain Hume, meeting Sachin in the final, former Atletico coach Antonio Habas, Virat Kohli’s aggression and much more. What do you make of the semi-finals against Mumbai City FC yesterday night? We are happy to be in the final once again. I don’t think it was the best of the games. I thought the game in Kolkata was a lot better. But anyway we are in the finals. There has been a lot of debate about the coach's strategy, yesterday night. Were you surprised? I was just counting the changes for the first fifteen minutes. See, he knows football the best. I don't know much about it. I just go and enjoy it. We were equally nervous as he was. I congratulated him after the match. We have just one more hurdle to go. As an owner of the team, how will you describe the journey so far, being in the finals twice in three years? It’s been phenomenal reaching two finals and one semifinal last year in Kolkata. We won in Kolkata last year but lost on goal difference. So it’s been a consistent performance so far in ISL. Who has been more impressive as a coach – Habas or Molina? I like Habas as much I like Molina. They are two different characters. That's the way the world goes. You need characters like these to draw people to the ground. Talking about Virat Kohli, what do you make out of him? Virat is Virat. We use the term very much in Bengali. He is a terrific player, best in the world at the moment. Has had a great year and I wish him all the success ahead. What would you say about his aggression? He has twice the aggression as I had on the field. It’s not just his aggression, he scores runs as well. He is a terrific cricketer. We are all proud of him. Who in this Atletico side has impressed you the most? I think they all have played very well. Hume has been brilliant. Postiga has been good. Happy that he has gone through the season and touchwood one more match to go. Javi Lara has played well; Borja Fernades has been the backbone of the side. Three seasons and he have played almost every game. What about the Indian players? I am impressed with Debjit’s performance. He has been brilliant. I thought Robert has been brilliant on the left. Prabir has done well too on the right. We will be missing Arnab though in the final. He has also been a pillar in the defense like Borja. Can we see a Sachin versus Sourav final? Yeah, it's in Kerala. We beat him last time in his hometown. Hopefully, we will beat him in his new hometown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZCwz5jQGmQ