One goal in the 74th minute by Dimitros Petratos was enough to send the FC Goa fans with their hearts on their shoulders as Mohun Bagan Super Giants broke the hosts unbeaten run in the ISL 10 at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Wednesday night.
Both teams started cautiously and throughout the 90 minutes it was the visitors who were more pronounced with their ball control, which will leave the Mohun Bagan coach happy, as his decision to give the Indian players a bigger role, paid off.
FC Goa started the first and the second half enjoying more moves but was never really able to get Kolkata goalkeeper Vishal Kaith make one good save. The hosts looked tentative and not raring to go – just like the opponents – but lacked the finish.
Mohun Bagan started with three foreign players – one at the back and two upfront – leaving FC Goa enough space to dominate the midfield. Captain Brandon Fernandes did create gaps for his teammates but they failed to capitalise on these.
Mohun Bagan started with three foreign players – one at the back and two upfront – leaving FC Goa enough space to dominate the midfield.
Jay Gupta, who was FC Goa’s star in their last match, moved up occasionally and tried a number of shots from far but they looked schoolish on most occasions – lacking depth and direction.
The monotony was briefly broken at the stadium in the 9th minute when Dimitrios Petratos was fed by goalkeeper Kaith and the last named, after glancing around let go a shot that had FC Goa goalkeeper Arshdeep Singh bringing out what could well have been the best and only save of the evening.
The try and save seemed to have robbed the sheen out of FC Goa’s first half dominance with the visitors enjoying possession thereafter and the hosts coming with one-off raids that lacked teeth.
The closest FC Goa came to having a crack at the rival goal was when a Carlos Rodriguez shot, with only the Bagan keeper to beat, grazed horizontally past the goal.
If the first half lacked romance, the second was no better with only the Indian contingent in Mohun Bagan having reason to be happy as their coach Antonio Habbas kept giving them the handle from their counterparts from abroad.
The Mohun Bagan coach brought in Goa’s Liston Colaco in place of Armando Sadiku from Albania and the choice had its bearing on the only goal of the evening.
Liston on seeing a through ball, made a dash for it and FC Goa keeper Arshdeep came out of goal. The ball rebounded towards Petratos who on seeing the FC Goa keeper out of place lobbed it in from out of the box.
Down by a goal and facing their first defeat of the season, FC Goa failed to rejuvenate. Instead, a story of unforced errors followed and as time ticked, the final scoreline started becoming evident.
Mohun Bagan, on their part, decided to play extra cautious with men falling behind in numbers when the need arose, with Liston alone upfront as Petratos was replaced by Kiyan Giri.
Liston had the last chance of the evening when he was fouled at the top of the box. His free kick was judicially intercepted by Arshdeep and thus the curtains on FC Goa’s first defeat came down.
