Federation Cup Football
Mumbai FC produced a determined fighting display, but were unfortunate to pay the penalty as they suffered another defeat at the hands of Sporting Clube de Goa, losing the return leg by an identical 1-0 margin as the first leg in the first round 2016 Federation Cup at the Tilak Maidan, Vasco, Goa on Wednesday. The Goans, who won the tie 2-0 on aggregate, have now progressed to a semi-final meeting with Aizawl FC, who had defeated I-League champion Bengaluru FC 5-3, in another first round match.
Action during Sporting Clube de Goa & Mumbai FC, Federation Cup Football match.
The Mumbai outfit, who had conceded a goal at the death in the first leg, looked more positive in their approach, played with greater intent and tried their best to turn things around in the return leg. However, their hopes were dashed when Subhashish Bose converted from a dubious penalty in the 46th minute to give Sporting Clube a 1-0 win, which added burden on the visiting team.
Referee Fasil Salahudeen stunned the Mumbai FC camp when he surprisingly pulled up defender Ashutosh Mehta for what looked like a legitimate tackle inside the penalty area and awarded Sporting a penalty.
Earlier, the Mumbai side went on the offensive and came to finding the net in the seventh minute, but Min-Chol Son failed to score from close after Taisuke Matsugae had headed across Eric Brown’s free-kick.
Immediately at the other end, Sporting were denied by the framework as Rowllin Borges free-kick beat goalkeeper Kunal Sawant but the ball crashed into bar. Sawant later did well to block Pratesh Shirodkar’s free-kick.
Thereafter, the Mumbai club earned a series of free-kicks, but Steven Dias and Eric Brown were unable to find success. The Goans who were quick on the counter also had their share of missed chances with their consistent scorer Sumeet Passi bungling from handshaking distance in the 29th minute. On the stroke of the half-time whistle, Passi once again was off target as he tried to lob over an advanced Sawant and the teams went into the break without disturbing the scorer.
Soon after switching ends, the Goans were lucky to earn the penalty and defended well to deny the visitors from scoring a goal.
In the 77th minute Dias provided Sushil Kumar Singh with a chance but his header narrowly missed the target and later Pratik Chowdhary’s firm header was saved by goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharta, who had a good game.
Result –Sporting Clube de Goa 1 (Subhashish Bose 46th – pen) beat Mumbai FC 0.