JRD Tata Sports Complex: Borja Herrera scored the winner in the fifth minute of second-half injury time as FC Goa defeated Jamshedpur FC in a thriller eclipsing the home team 3-2 at the JRD Tata Sports Complex on Tuesday evening. The Gaurs are now placed third in the points table with 42 points from 21 matches. They are level on points (42) with the Mohun Bagan Super Giant.The game kept tilting both ways until the Gaurs laid the final stamp through a winner by Borja Herrera. However, it was Jamshedpur FC who looked to open the floodgates, courtesy of a goal by their Japanese star Rei Tachikawa, which was his fifth strike of the season. The Red Miners outnumbered the Gaurs near their goal after a corner, and Tachikawa found himself to be at the right place at the right time for his left-footed stunner to land to the high centre of the goal 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 into this match as well. 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 too. 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 home to get the Gaurs the lead.
Jamshedpur FC didn’t take a step back and kept knocking on 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 finally delivered it to the attacker on the left flank for him to slot it inside the net with some clinical finishing in the 73rd minute.
For about 20-odd minutes, it appeared that FC Goa would end up settling for a draw, thus complicating their top-two chances, but Herrera came to the rescue merely minutes before the game drew to an end.
Both teams kept searching for the winner, leaving spaces behind in the backline that Gaurs finally 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 next play Chennaiyin FC on April 14, while Jamshedpur FC’s season comes to an end with this match.
