ISL 2024: FC Goa rode a 2-1 victory against former champions Bengaluru FC at the Fatorda Stadium on Thursday night to rise to the third spot in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2023-24 standings.
FC Goa have now amassed 36 points with their 10th victory in 19 ISL games, steadily producing a bounce back from their disappointing three-match-long losing streak in February.
But the early indications for this encounter pointed to a different outcome. A mere two minutes after kickoff, Bengaluru FC broke the deadlock, leaving their mark from the very beginning of the match.
A youthful duo from the visiting Blues opened the game by breaking the FC Goa defense in one go. This was against a defense that has only let up 18 goals in 19 games this ISL season. A brilliant through ball was delivered by Suresh Singh Wangjam to Chingangbam Shivaldo Singh, a Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC) alumnus. Shivaldo Singh received the ball with an exquisite first touch and put it past Dheeraj Singh to take the lead.
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Shivaldo showed remarkable determination to increase that lead and showed no signs of faltering following the early wicket. Just four minutes later, the youthful player, playing a free-flowing front-line role, quickly collected the ball on the right side’s far post, but his close-range effort was unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, FC Goa gradually started to control the game. In the eighteenth minute, Noah Sadaoui stormed into the Bengaluru FC area and smashed the ball onto the side netting. Although the equalizer did not go their way, it did show that the Manolo Marquez-coached team was gradually winning.
After four minutes, Boris Singh, who was positioned at the edge of the box, was the recipient of a cross that Brandon Fernandes put in from a corner. The striker fired a hard drive that Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was unable to block because it deflected off defender Odei Onaindia and ended up in the back of the net.
A numerical advantage benefited FC Goa in the second half. In the 47th minute, Suresh, the main man behind Shivaldo’s goal setup, challenged Boris, which resulted in the latter’s dismissal, leaving Bengaluru FC with just 10 players. After that, the Gaurs started to possess the upper hand and attack the opponents more frequently.
Throughout the entire game, they had 68.2% of the possession and took 15 shots as opposed to the five that the Gaurs had. They launched an all-out assault on the box, and in the 81st minute, they finally saw results. On the left side of Gurpreet, midfielder Borja Herrera curled in a cross to Boris. The former Jamshedpur FC winger scored the game’s winning goal and secured the crucial three points for his club.
