FC Goa feast over Mumbai 5-0

MINOO FERNANDES|NT

Sports Reporter

Fatorda

FC Goa displayed a clinical performance by thrashing Mumbai City FC 5-0 and claimed top spot of the table in their ISL match played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Wednesday.

The Gaurs found the first goal through Coro who converted a penalty in the 6th minute. The next goal came through Jackichand Singh in the 54th minute followed by Eduardo Bedia in the 59th minute and substitute Minguel Palanca finished it with a brace in the 84th and 89th minute.

After this victory, FC Goa have now collected seven points from three matches and occupy the top position so far on account of better goal average. Mumbai City FC has four points in four matches.

After a foray at either end, the Gaurs took lead through a penalty kick.

In this early phase of the match, medio Hugo Boumous squared the ball to Spaniard Eduardo Bedia who in turn passed it to ideally placed Ferran Corominas who was brought down in the box by Mumbai City FC’s defender Souvik Chakrabarti.

Referee Om Prakash Thakur had no hesitation to point to the dreaded spot from where Ferran Corominas dispatched the ball into the rival nets, sending the Mumbai City FC keeper Amrinder Singh on the wrong side with a smart body feint, a good ploy used by Coro to deceive the rival keeper.

Though the early goal led to some frenzied celebrations on the bench and in the stands, FC Goa could come up with only few threatening moves, while the ball seemed to be in possession of Mumbai City FC whose threatening moves were halted in the bud by the Goan defense.

Mumbai had some decent chances in the first session. They could have gone into the lead quite early on, but their Brazilian striker Rafael Bastos ended up with two failed chances. The best chance that fell to Rafael was in the 30th minute when he was literally unchallenged. However, instead of taking a decent shot, the striker managed a weak grounder wide off the mark.

The defence of both the teams gave a fair account of themselves keeping a close watch and never allowed the strikers of either side to manoeuvre dangerously, cutting the moments at the time of pulling the trigger.

Coro could have doubled the lead in the 40th minute when he was unchallenged, but could not find the mark from close distance. Soon thereafter, Boumous fired over the rival bar.

FC Goa doubled their lead in the 55th minute when defender Seriton Fernandes sped down the right flank and on reaching the top of the box, deftly passed the ball to attacking medio Jackichand Singh, who tapped the ball to the far end of Mumbai City FC nets, giving no chance to keeper Amrinder, despite his good dive.

Receiving a cross from the right flank, Spanis’s Edurado Bedia scored Goa’s third goal when he brilliantly tapped the ball to the far corner of rival nets.

Mumbai suddenly came up with some good play and almost found the mark when Rafael Bastos appeared to go in for the kill, but his shot went wide from close distance. Mumbai soon had another chance which was wasted in a similar manner.

Though Mumbai City FC made some penetrating moves, they failed to roar back due to lack of finishing abilities.

Though Goa won, their finishing too needs to be improved.

Eduardo Bedia had an easy chance in the 80th minute but he failed to direct his left footer inside the nets, most surprisingly, sending the ball wide.

Spain’s Minguel Palanca who came as a substitute scored FC Goa’s fourth goal in the 84th minute off a pass from substitute Manvir Singh.

Minguel proved to be super sub as he completed his brace for the day in the 89th minute off a great pass from Ahmed Jahough.

A last minute free kick by Mumbai’s Paulo Machado (captain) was smartly saved by FC Goa keeper Mohammad Nawaz.