FC Goa returned to winning ways with a 3-1 win against home team NorthEast United FC in Hero Indian Super League 2015 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Thursday. Jonatan Lucca, Reinaldo and Mandar Rao Dessai hit the back of the net for the visitors after Francis Dadzie had put NorthEast ahead in the 12th minute. With their second win in four matches, to go with a draw and a loss, Goa move up to the second spot while with their third successive defeat NorthEast prop up the league.
Fans, 30,319 in number, were in for a surprise in the first half. Goals by Dadzie, Lucca and Reinaldo had put them in a frenzy.
The game stared quite on a bullish note. The breakthrough for the home team came in the 12th minute when Sanju Pradhan entered the box from the right and sent a swirling aerial pass to Dadzie who made no mistake heading it home. The Sanju-Dadzie combo was quite awesome throughout the first forty-five minutes of the game.
The mood of the ecstatic crowd, who were witnessing their first home game of the season, was dampened by twin blows in quick succession – first from Lucca in the 28th minute, from a Leo Moura-Joffre effort, and then the next one, a smooth finish by Reinaldo with Joffre playing a hand again. The Gaurs went into the half-time break leading 2-1.
The second half commenced on a quiet note. The midfield from both sides took a while to get going. However, in the 56th minute, a Reinaldo pass to CS Sabeeth got the spectators back on their feet but Sabeeth failed to convert it in the box.
Reagan Singh’s pass to Cedric Hengbart exacted the same response from the crowd in the 59th minute, but the latter headed it right into the gloves of the Gaurs’ custodian. Prominent jabs at the respective goal posts were witnessed from both ends.
Mandar, who came in for Joffre late into the second half, capitalized on a beautiful ball from Moura to get the third goal for the Goan team in the 70th minute. There were chances galore in the last few minutes but both teams failed to convert them and the match ended in a 3-1 result in favour of the visitors.
