The Spanish Armada led by Manuel Lanzarote and Ferran Corominas proved too strong for ATK, as FC Goa beat the Kolkata-based side 5-1 at home on Wednesday night.
Sergi Juste (10') opened the scoring for Goa, which was closely followed by a brace from Lanzarote (15', 21') and goals from Corominas (64') and Mark Sifneos (90') added to the tally whereas Robbie Keane (87') scored a consolation goal for ATK.
Edu Bedia was back from suspension for Sergio Lobera's side who were without the suspended Ahmed Jahouh as Pronay Halder got his second successive start. The other change for the hosts was the inclusion of Chinglensana Singh in place of Mohammed Ali while Hugo Boumous continued in place of Brandon Fernandes.
Ashley Westwood also made two changes in the ATK starting XI who went down 3-4 against Delhi Dynamos in their last match as Prabir Das and Rupert Nongrum came in place of Keegan Pereira and Ryan Taylor.
Inside the opening 10 minutes, Lanzarote made easy work of Ashutosh Mehta on the right and his cross was picked up by Boumous on the far side. The Moroccan got past Prabir and forced a corner. And Sergio Juste a.k.a. Chechi nodded the corner into the back of the net to give the Goans the lead.
Celebrations continued for the home fans as Lanzarote made it 2-0 with a calm finish from the right in the 15th minute after the rebound from Soram Poirei's save off Mandar Rao Dessai's shot from the left, fell for the Spaniard.
There was no stopping Lanzarote who bagged his second of the game and his 11th goal this season soon after. He controlled Halder's long ball and got past Anwar Ali to curl it into the top left side of the goal in the 21st minute.
Goa had two more chances before the half-hour mark when Corominas played the ball to Lanzarote on the right but the return ball was too close to Poirei. In another move, Narayan Das' curling delivery from the left was just about out of reach of a diving Corominas.
Chinglensana's foul on Sibong Mbatha saw Robbie Keane's free-kick fly just above the bar.
In fact, the only chance the visitors were able to create for themselves in the first half was at the fag end when Shankar Sampingiraj relayed Jayesh Rane's pass from the left to Sibongakonke Mbatha who blasted his shot wide.
Having started with four foreigners, Westwood replaced Sampingiraj with Zequinha who took ATK's first shot on target in the second half that was from distance and easily dealt by FC Goa goalkeeper Naveen Kumar.
At the other end, Poirei had no reply to Corominas' strike from the free-kick in the 64th minute after Anwar Ali was guilty of bringing down the Golden Boot contender. Coro went on to convert the free-kick.
Zequinha was played through by Keane but the shot was straight to Naveen before the custodian had to punch out a free-kick taken by the Portuguese.
Keane had a couple of good opportunities but his efforts did not bear fruit. Only in the 87th minute could he pull a goal back. Zequinha's pass found him and despite Naveen getting a touch of it, Keane's effort went in off the post.
However, it wasn't the end of Goa's goal fest as Mark Sifneos, who had replaced Corominas, joined the party. The Dutch striker finished with aplomb after Anwar Ali failed to clear a goal kick from Naveen Kumar.
Lanzarote could have completed his first hat-trick this season after Boumous played a lovely backheel into his path. The ensuing shot was agonisingly close to the right post and referee Matthew Conger brought the proceedings to an end.
FC Goa now go into their next game against FC Jamshedpur knowing that a draw is enough to reach the playoffs. Whereas, ATK will host NorthEast United on the same day as they look to avoid finishing rock-bottom.
No comments:
Post a Comment