Jamshedpur, Apr 9 (PTI) Already assured of a play-offs spot, FC Goa defeated Jamshedpur FC in a 3-2 thriller to move up to third spot in the Indian Super League points table here on Tuesday.
The Gaurs now have 42 points from 21 matches. They are level on points with Mohun Bagan Super Giant but have played one match more than the Kolkata side.
The game kept tilting both ways until the Gaurs laid the final stamp through a winner by Borja Herrera in the added time of the second half.
However, it was Jamshedpur FC who opened the floodgates courtesy of a goal by their Japanese star Rei Tachikawa, which was his fifth of the season.
The Red Miners outnumbered the Gaurs near their goal after a corner, and Tachikawa was at the right place at the right time for his left-footed stunner, which bulged the net from the left side of the six-yard box in the 17th minute.
However, that joy didn’t last long for the home team as Noah Sadaoui carried on his incredible run of form from the previous game. The Moroccan attacker had notched a hat-trick against Hyderabad FC in the last game and he followed it up by scoring the Gaurs’ first goal of this match in the 21st minute.
They broke quickly on a counter, and central midfielder Carl McHugh laid the ball to Noah on the left flank. The attacker did the entire act from there, beating Jamshedpur FC goalkeeper Vishal Yadav on the near post.
Sadaoui built on that momentum, delivering a lateral ball for Carlos Martinez that the Spaniard volleyed in to get the Gaurs the lead in the 28th minute.
Jamshedpur FC didn’t take a step back and kept knocking the door through attempts by Pratik Chaudhari, Javi Siverio, and Mohammed Sanan.
They adopted a varied range of attacking options, and the equaliser by Seiminlen Doungel came through a conscious team effort where they worked the ball up and delivered it to the attacker on the left flank for him to slot it inside the net in the 73rd minute. It was some clinical finishing.
For about 20-odd minutes, it appeared that FC Goa would end up settling for a draw, complicating their top-two chances, but Herrera came to the rescue merely minutes before the game came to an end.
Both teams kept searching for the winner, leaving spaces behind in the backline that Gaurs exploited. Brison Fernandes’s delivery for an onrushing Herrera near the box was met and converted by the midfielder with ultimate ease, thus scoring Goa’s third goal and getting them three points from the game.
FC Goa will play Chennaiyin FC on April 14, whereas Jamshedpur FC’s season comes to an end with this match.
Source: PTI News
