A blistering first half from the Gaurs laid down the marker for things to come under new head coach Derrick Pereira. However, they couldn’t carry over their dominance to the second half and were pegged back by a floundering Odisha.
The two struggling sides canceled each other out in the opening phases of play at the Tilak Maidan in Vasco. However, as the clock ticked closer to the halfway mark in the first half, FC Goa began to grow in dominance and were in complete control by the time the referee blew his whistle to mark the end of the 45-minute period.
New head coach Derrick Pereira had to wait to see his side click, which it did after Alberto Noguera’s low shot was parried behind by Odisha’s Kamaljit Singh in the 26th minute. 34 minutes in, centre-back Aibanbha Dohling headed narrowly wide from a corner, and in the very next attack, left wingback Saviour Gama freed Noguera with a sensational reverse pass, but his shot was saved by the goalkeeper.
By now, the warning signs were flashing loudly for Odisha, but they failed to quell the Gaurs’ threat, which resulted in Ivan Gonzalez poking his side in front in the 42nd minute at the end of a Dohling flick.
Momentum swayed in the other direction after the interval. Seven minutes into the second half, Jonathas found himself with time and space on the right side of the box and tried to lift the ball over Dheeraj Singh; the goalkeeper had read his intent and was well-positioned to make a save. However, just a minute later, a deflected cross from Nanda Kumar looped over Dheeraj and was tapped in by Jonathas at the back post to draw Odisha level.
By the 70th minute, Goa were hanging on. The Gaurs nearly fell behind to a calamitous own goal as Dylan Fox headed substitute Aridai Cabrera’s cross onto his own goalpost. The ball fell to Liridon Krasniqi on the rebound, but his shot was blocked on the line by Gonzalez.
Krasniqi had the chance to win the match for Odisha in the 92nd minute, when, played through by Cabrera, he shaped up to curl the ball around Dheeraj and into the far corner. But, the custodian got a fingertip to the subsequent shot and pushed the ball onto the post and behind.
The spoils were shared in the end, leaving Odisha and Goa seventh and eighth in the Indian Super League table, respectively.
