FATORDA: In what turned out to be one of the fastest first halves of this ISL season, FC Goa came out victorious thumping the table’s bottom dwellers, FC Pune City 4-2 in their Indian Super League match played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Sunday.
It was Ferran Corominas who once again played with his charm scoring a brace, wherein Hugo Boumous and Jackichand Singh found the mark for the Gaurs.
With this win, FC Goa have collected 10 points in four matches and jump to the top position of the league table, while FC Pune City linger with only a point in four matches.
FC Goa who led 4-2 in the first session scored twice through Ferran Corominas (Coro) (4th and 34th minute), Hugo Boumous (12th minute) and Jackichand Singh (19th minute). FC Pune City pulled two goals back through Marcelo Oereira (8th minute) and Emeliano Alfaro (23rd minute).
Two quick goals in the first eight minutes of play of first half kept the spectators guessing, even as FC Goa went into the lead in the very fourth minute.
A sudden long overhead pass by medio Ahmed Jahouh left the entire FC Pune City stranded and as striker Coro dashed in with the ball, cutting past a defender, made the angle narrow and then sent a right footed grounder that crawled into the nets.
FC Pune city did not take much time to retaliate and in the next four minutes levelled the score through striker Marcello Pereira whose brilliant angular effort off a pass from Robin Singh crashed to the far corner of FC Goa nets to silence the vociferous Goa fans.
Oozing with flair and tremendous energy, FC Goa once again went into the lead to take the score 2-1 in their favour after medio Hugo Boumous headed an angular inside the Pune City nets off a pass from Coro in the 12th minute.
Goa scored their third goal through Jackichand Singh off a great pass from Coro in the 19th minute.
Eventually, Pune City began to claw back into the game and pulled another goal back, when captain Emeliano Alfaro dodged a couple of FC Goa defenders inside the box , before romping it home in the 23rd minute.
Coro then completed his brace when he combined superbly with Jackichand Singh in the 34th minute. Jackichand took into his stride two rival defenders and then passed the ball to a better placed Coro who responded with a great strike to find the rival nets.
Pune began to steal their way into the FC Goa rearguard after stitching dangerous looking moves and almost scored but the powerful left footed shot off Marcelo hit the cross bar and came back into play, giving a real scare to FC Goa’s keeper Mohammad Navaz.
Both the teams almost had an equal share in the first session, but FC Goa who saw more of the ball and had lion’s share of scoring chances, were lethal and converted their chances in great style to take the steam off their rivals.
When the second session was hardly eight minutes old, FC Goa defender Chinglesana Singh created a needless foul inside the box, bringing down Pune’s Emeliano inside the box. Referee Pranjal Banerjee had no hesitation to point to the penalty spot.
Striker Marcelo of FC Pune City stepped forward to take the shot but his effort was brilliantly saved by FC Goa’s Mohammad Nawaz.
Goa, who punctured the rival defence with some incisive and precise passes, looked eager to score more goals. Coro almost scored a hat-trick in the 60th minute when he rolled the ball to towards the left corner of rival nets, but Pune’s medio Ashutosh Mehta came from nowhere to stop the ball.
All the hopes of FC Pune City were dashed to the ground, when they were reduced to ten men as substitute Diogo Carlos de Olivera was red carded by the referee in the 84th minute of play for committing a foul against FC Goa defender Seriton Fernandes.
FC Goa too suffered a red card when Coro received the marching orders from the referee in the 89th minute of play for fouling on Pune’s Marko Stankovic.
Sunday worth remembering
Six goals in 34 minutes was enough to set the Gaur free and enable him to return home with three points, the golden boot and a place at the top of the table as FC Goa beat FC Pune City 4-2 at the Nehru stadium in Fatorda on Sunday.
The stadium in Fatorda reverberated for ninety minutes. FC Pune City came and were on a resurgent mood. They had the intent of establishing their place in the ISL but FC Goa had another story that ultimately culminated in six goals; one penalty save and two red cards.
If the action was about goals in the first half, the story was of good saves, some sketchy rough play and FC Goa disrobing to show their other side of football- play as a unit and with less focus on individuals. Yet, Coro could not be hidden for his two goals; two assists and a red card.
Coro is turning to be the piston that puts the team in motion. He started with an early first goal the last time and followed it up with another against FC Pune city. FC Goa were up by a goal in five minutes through Coro only for FC Pune to need three minutes to equalise and by then the tone of more goals to come was evident.
So the goal watch ticked: 5, 8, 11, 19, 21 and 34. Goals flew thick and fast and at one stage, during the first half, it was not clear whether the first forty five minutes would end in an avalanche of goals.
FC Goa took the game from the flanks into the centre and always had a striker who could finish from there. FC Pune city looked to the experience of Alfaro and Marcelo to outfox Mohammad Nawaz. They succeeded twice and could not go further because the FC Goa goalkeeper is making hay while the sun shines under the horizontal.
Jackichand was once again at the thick of action and he used the flanks to score and test FC Pune City goalkeeper a couple of times. Vishal Kaith conceded four goals but the score line could have been different if not for some good saves.
The FC Goa defense appeared to have been subsidised by their forwards last season. It is a different now because Sana, Mourtada and goalkeeper Mohammad Nawaz let nothing fall in between them. This difference has allowed Seriton enough room up front and with Mandar on the same tune, the FC Goa attack flower could bud from the stem.
Hugo Boumos, Coro and Jackichand are making a nice knot upfront with Edu, Ahmed and Lenny providing the link between the defenders and strikers. Ahmed tried and found Jacki many a times while Edu tried to making scoring opportunities for himself and Lenny kept the pace of the game.
FC Pune City started with five new faces and that of Robin Singh appeared to have soured their beginning. Robin did not know whether to fly or hum. He preferred to complete the number and that gave FC Goa a lot of advantage until he was substituted with Adil Khan.
Emiliano Alfaro, Marcelino Pereira, Jonathan Pereira and Ashique Kurniyan spearheded FC Pune’s attacks for a major part of ninety minutes. Alfaro and Marcelino tried to beat the Gaur with experience with gentle pokes at the FC Goa goal. Unfortunately for them, Mohammad Nawaz is fast growing the stage of feeling pokes.
Marrcelino hit the post and Alfaro saw his penalty being saved in the second half. Seriton was denied a goal by the FC Pune goalkeeper and Mandar, who was moved forward after seventy minutes, could not find a compelling shot to trouble the Fc Pune goalkeeper.
The lack of goals in the second half was complemented by the penalty saved in the second and the two red cards flashed in this time. First, Diego Oliveira was told to go and a few minutes later Coro followed suit.
As the final whistle was blown, the proximity of action to time stood clear ,and the fans got a Sunday they bargained for.
