Fatorda: In a game of football, anything can happen. And if you were to ask coach Ferrando, he’d have probably prayed for a miracle against Persepolis, considering he had to replace almost the entire squad with inexperienced players, owing to the suspension of their key player Edu Bedia, injuries to a few players, and to rest the others on the brink of injury.
For the first twenty odd minutes of the game, the changed FC Goa squad managed to keep things silent, not allowing Persepolis to find any chances. However, in the 24th minute, Shahriyar Moghanloo broke free from his markers and went on to score from what should have been a regulation save for Naveen Kumar.
In the 34th minute, Romario tried to take a shot on goal, but his effort went way wide of the goal keeper. This was the first of a handful shots attempted by the Gaurs in the match.
In the 41st minute, a major clearance mess-up by the goalkeeper Naveen Kumar resulted in a penalty being conceded, and Mahdi Torabi made no mistake as he scored his second penalty goal of the campaign. Two minutes were added on in the first half, but the Gaurs managed to keep the scoreline at 0-2.
Hardly two minutes into the second half and Persepolis managed to add one more goal to their name, with a clean strike from Isa Alkasir, making it 3-0 in favour of the Iranians. In the 53rd minute, FC Goa had a chance, but a weak shot meant that the Persepolis goalkeeper Bozidar Radosevic was able to collect the rolling ball with ease.
Almost at the hour mark (57th min), coach Juan Ferrando decided to shuffle up the squad a bit with multiple substitutions. Ivan, Amarjit and Devendra made way for Ali, Glan and Jorge. However, within seconds of this substitution, Goa ended up conceding one more goal as a result of a confusion in the FC Goa box.
Mohamed Ali made a small mistake in clearing the ball with his first touch of the game, and Kamal Kamyabinia made sure that the mistake did not go unpunished, with a clean strike that beat a helpless Naveen Kumar on goal. 4-0 to Persepolis.
Coach Yahya Mohammadi decided to replace goalscorer Isa Alkasir with Mehdi Mehdikhani in the 63rd minute, perhaps to save his key striker for the upcoming matches.
FC Goa custodian for the day, Naveen Kumar made amends for his earlier mistake with a fantastic save in the 70th minute. Fifteen minutes later, FC Goa players appealed for a penalty which was rightly denied by the Japanese referee Hiroyuki Kimura, as he deemed that the players had simply slipped without contact.
Persepolis FC continued pressing for the remainder of the match, with the same intensity as the start, showcasing the need for Indian players to build up their fitness levels to match some of the most competitive players in the world.
Vahid Amiri put across a header in the 91st min but went wide of a diving Naveen.
In the dying minutes of the game, Goa had their first shot on target with Ortiz firing in a shot which was brilliantly saved by the keeper. Despite the repeated pressing, Persepolis did not manage to score the 5th goal, and the game ended at 0-4.
Al Rayyan vs Al Wahda
The match between the clubs from Qatar and UAE was a feisty encounter, with 3 red cards and 8 yellow cards being dished out across multiple instances. Al Rayyan was at the receiving end of 2 of the reds, adding to Laurent Blanc’s miseries at the ACL.
A lone penalty in the 71st minute was the differentiating factor between the two sides as Al Wahda managed to make it 2 in 2 against Al Rayyan, leaving the Qatari side languishing at the bottom of the table with a single point from 4 games.
Post-Match Press Conference
Coach Ferrando expressed disappointment at the post match press conference, saying that his team should have done much better. “We had to make a lot of changes today, solely because our main players were exhausted and a few of them were on caution. After conceding the first two goals, the morale of the team took a hit, and we ended up conceding two more.”
“It was a very difficult match, and players were just recovering. If we have to talk about positives, we had very few injuries in today’s game. 2 of our players might be injured, but that can be figured out only after the scans are out.” he concluded.
