FC Goa’s winning run comes to a halt.

by FC Admin October 26, 2015

Sunil Chhetri inspired Mumbai City ran out 2-0 winners over FC Goa in Mumbai. Chhetri’s penalty and Piquionne’s header prove sufficient to halt the Gaurs’ run of two consecutive wins.

Mumbai City FC continued their surge up the table with a comfortable 2-0 win over league leaders FC Goa at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.

Goals from Sunil Chhetri and Frederic Piquonne were enough to give the home team all three points on a muggy night in the financial capital of the country.

The home team made two changes to their starting XI from their win over Delhi Dynamos. Aitor made way for the ex-Hammer Frederic Piquionne and Ashutosh Mehta replaced Subhash Singh. FC Goa also made a couple of changes to their lineup with Raju Gaekwad replacing Nicolau Colaco in defence and Victorino Fernandes coming in for the injured Reinaldo up front.

FC Goa had made all the early running. Despite playing a narrow formation, Goa used the width provided by the excellent Narayan Das to great effect and looked a real threat going forward. The Gaurs once again opted to line up in a diamond formation with Leo Moura at the tip of it. And in the early exchanges he began finding plenty of time and space on the ball and looked the man most likely to unlock Mumbai City FC’s defence.

Narayan Das had the first shot on goal in the 4th minute after skipping past his marker. But the shot was well wide. FC Goa then went close to breaking the deadlock in the seventh minute. From a corner, the initial header came from Gaekwad. His flick on was nearly turned into the Mumbai’s net by Victorino but he failed to control his effort and trouble Subrata Paul in Mumbai City’s net.

Mumbai City FC then steadily got back into the game and had a couple of shots on target. Neither of which failed to trouble Kattimani greatly. But his heart would have been in his mouth when Sony Norde’s deflected shot off Gaekwad nearly made into the back of the net. Goa then broke from the resulting corner. He jinxed past a couple of players before playing Victorino in. The forward opted to square into the six yard area rather go for a shot on goal.

After a promising start to the match where both sides exchanged shots on goal the game settled out and it became a war of attrition. With both sides’ midfield failing to stamp their authority in the game, the ball possession constantly turned over from one side to the other.

The breakthrough came in the 33rd minute. Gabriel found some space on the right flank and floated a beautiful ball into the back post. Piquionne looked the favourite to get to the ball before Raju’s untidy challenge brought him down. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Chettri stepped up to slot home his 3rd goal in as many games for Mumbai City this season.

The three-pronged attack of Mumbai in the form of Sonny Norde, Chhetri and Piquionne then started imposing their quality on the game and carved out opportunities for one another. Chhetri the first to try his luck. His left foot curler saved by a diving Katimani in the 39th minute.

The Goan goalkeeper then found himself in the thick of the action again as he was forced to produce a fantastic save to deny Piquionne in the 40th minute after Goa conceded sloppy possession in the middle of the field.

After the break, Mumbai City were the quickest off the blocks and doubled their lead within three minutes of the restart.

The goal coming straight out of Mumbai’s training ground routine. Norde initially stood over the set piece and his clever layoff to Juan Aguilera allowed the Spaniard to find Piquionne in the box with nodded home with a diving header.

Zico responded by throwing on Mandar Rao Dessai and the mercurial midfielder Jofre to try and pull a goal back. And the introduction of the attacking pair began to make a difference.

Crisp passing in the middle led to the ball falling to Moura’s feet who played Victorino in with a sublime through ball. But the Goan failed to control his shot and just fired over Subrata Paul’s goal. He then went on the waste another chance where his tame shot fell into the veteran national goalkeeper’s hands.

With tempers flaring and Piquionne acting as the chief antagonist, Anelka decided to bring himself on and give his legs a workout. Mumbai City then proceeded to kill the attacking threat of FC Goa and retained possession for large periods of time to seal the three points and take them level on points with Atletico De Kolkata.

Zico was left to reflect on what could have been and start working towards FC Goa’s next home game when they take on FC Pune City at Fatorda on the 30th of October.