Full-time report: FC Goa took apart Mumbai City FC and scored five past them at the Fatorda Stadium to go top of the table in the ongoing Indian Super League fifth edition. They could have scored even more, what with two very legible penalty shouts from Ferran Corominas, who scored the solitary goal in the first half.
Goa didn't take much to get going and in the fourth minute, after defending a corner, the Goans were quick to take the attack to the opposition that saw Coro run into the box. As the Spaniard was looking to work an angle, Mumbai's Sauvik Chakrabarti came from behind to whack him down inside the box. The referee points to the spot immediately. Coro dispatched his penalty down the middle with a Panenka penalty kick with the goalkeeper diving to his left.
Throughout the first-half, Goa's best chances came when they broke at pace to counter-attack and the goal wasn't an exception either. Goa created multiple other chances with Jacki Chand one of the bright creative forces in that half.
Mumbai weren't without opportunities either with Lucian Goian getting at least three good chances to head the ball inside the net. The first such opportunity came in the 14th minute when Arnold put in a beautiful cross from the right of the box to the far post where Goian got at the end of it but failed to keep his header down.
Despite going a goal down, Mumbai were very much in the contest at halftime as they were creating chances after chances and were just failing to bury it inside the goal. There was hope, but it was soon to be snatched away.
In the 55th minute, Seriton did fantastically to stave off a couple defenders on the right and put in a cross inside the box for onrushing Jackichand who slotted the ball just fine to make it 2-0 for Goa.
Six minutes later, Edu Bedia scored one of the finest goals of this year's ISL when he got the ball outside the box, played a give and go with Coro, and, upon receiving it again took the shot first time with the outside of his boot and the ball flew into the back of the net.
Mumbai had two quick chances to score after that Goa goal. First, Arnold had a chance to cross into Sougou in front of the box but his cross was overhit and failed to find his man. A couple minutes later, Machado got the ball on the left wing with only the goalkeeper to beat, but he lost his calm and absolutely blasted the ball into the side-netting instead.
These mistakes by Mumbai came back to bite them again when in the 84th minute, Goa scored again. The punisher this time was the substitute Miguel Fernandez but the goal was made by Manvir and a shabby Mumbai defence. Manvir robbed Subhasish off the ball after pressuring him at the backline, ran through on goal and then laid it off for Miguel Fernandez to slot it home to make it 4-0.
More misery was to befall Mumbai as Goa got another goal in the 90th minute when a stunning floated ball inside the box found Fernandez all alone. He controlled the ball and blasted it past the goalkeeper to make it 5-0 for the night.
Mumbai would certainly rue the chances missed as they did create a few good chances but just couldn't find the back of the net.
The win sends Goa to the top of the table with seven points from three games and a whopping goal difference of seven. Mumbai, meanwhile, languish at the seventh spot with only four points to show from their four games this season. Jorge Costa must be feeling under all kinds of pressure. Before the game, he said his players were playing well but just couldn't finish. The very same problem plagued Mumbai in this game too. Costa has diagnosed the problem, now he needs to come up with a solution, and he doesn't have much time left to do that.