Shillong, Aug 30: Champions FC Goa bowed out of the Durand Cup but on a high, after their young squad held a Sunil Chhetri led Bengaluru FC to an entertaining 2-2 draw in a Group A encounter in Kolkata’s the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan. The Gaurs came from behind in the second half to share the spoils with Phrangki Buam and Lesly Rebello scoring to cancel out first half goals by Sunil Chhetri and N Siva Sakthi.
The first goal came in the 24th minute from a free- kick, after Rohit Kumar was fouled just outside the box. Chhetri curled one delightfully into the top right corner to give BFC a deserving lead. It was the talisman’s third goal of the tournament.
BFC continued to dominate in the middle with Bruno Ramires in particular, who was providing accurate balls to the wingers Udanta Singh and Namgyal Bhutia. The pair were always willing to run into the open spaces left by the Goan defence.
One such ball from Bruno found Udanta who headed it across the six-yard box for Sakthi to score his second of the tournament and double BFC’s lead.
In the second half, a weak header to the keeper by Rohit Kumar was poached by Buam, who rounded off keeper Amrit Gope, to finish with consummate ease.
Goa had their spirits up and started to have even more meaningful attacks. The second goal came in 63rd minute from a darting run by Vasim Inamdar, who pushed the ball ahead for Rebello to finish from in-between the keeper’s legs.
Hyderabad win
In the other encounter of the day, ISL side Hyderabad FC beat NEROCA 2-0 at the Khuman Lampak Stadium in Imphal. Strikes from Joel Chianese (2nd minute) and Bartholomew Ogbeche (16th and 86th minutes) handed a comfortable win to the Nizams.
