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FC Goa continued their head to head domination over Mumbai City FC as they blanked the Islanders 2-0 in a top-half of the table clash at the Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai in the Indian Super League.
Sergio Lobera's men went ahead courtesy an Edu Bedia goal after piling on constant pressure on the Islanders from kick-off. FC Goa doubled their lead courtesy a spot-kick from Ferran Corominas to comfortably register the all-important three points.
With this win, the Gaurs close in the gap to Mumbai City FC by just three points with a game to spare and now sit at the third place behind Mumbai City FC and Bengaluru FC respectively.
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FC Goa performed brilliantly tonight and few of their players displayed immense individual brilliance to accomplish the same while several Mumbai City FC players had an off-day resulting in the loss. Let us look at the Top 5 Hits and Flops of the game :
#1 Hit: Ferran Corominas
The Spaniard continued his dream form on to the Mumbai City game as well, with 11 goals now from 12 games, making him the top-scorer of the ongoing season so far.
Corominas showed a sudden burst of pace in regular intervals which made life difficult for the Defenders in Blue to contain him. Coro displayed his usual exemplary bit of skills on and off the ball to create space for himself and his teammates to exploit.
Coro created the first goal-mouth action of the game with sublime skills and balance but failed to find the back of the net.
Minutes later, he set up Edu Bedia with just a touch needed for the first goal. Coro kept on stretching the Mumbai City defence with wide and unpredictable runs which allowed him to win a penalty of Ahmed Jahouh's ball. He stepped up to take the penalty and scored as well to put the game to bed.
With such a performance under his belt, it was no surprise to see the match organizers select him as the 'Hero of the Match'.
#2 Flop: Paulo Machado
The Portuguese has been instrumental in Mumbai City's position at the pinnacle of the league throughout the season.
However, Machado was not at his best today at the centre of the park. He was tasked to steer the Mumbai City midfield and hold the play but neither did really happen. The Mumbai City midfield fell apart creating a large hole behind the strikers.
The defenders kept on floating long balls from the back towards Issoko and Bastos, but it was way too easy for Mourtada Fall and co. to deal with and simply head away from the incoming balls to safety.
Machado failed to keep Milan Singh and Raynier Fernandes in position, thus weakening the wing play as well.
Strikers Arnold Issoko and Rafael Bastos were spotted stranded ahead of the Goa back-four, waiting to get good balls from the midfield to capitalise on which never came.
# 3 Hit: Edu Bedia
Edu Bedia's incisive passing, long-range shooting abilities, setting and holding up play followed by a decent goal-scoring ability makes him an all-around threat for any side to contain. The Spaniard combined brilliantly with Ahmed Jahouh at the centre of the park and created brilliant link-up play with Corominas upfront.
Edu Bedia's blind runs and make-shift striking roles also allowed Mandar Rao Dessai and Brandon Fernandes to come up front and go for goals from distance, keeping Amrinder Singh busy.
Bedia's first blind run to move away from his marker in the first half set him up brilliantly at the end of a Corominas ball to finish it for the first goal.
Bedia kept on moving across the pitch to play a diverse role which did not allow Jorge Acosta's men to stick to a single gameplan, which ended up being haphazard for the home side at the end of the day.
#4 Flop: Lucian Goian
The Romanian Centre-back has been an infamous name in Indian Football for the past couple of seasons now with him and along with his son singing the Indian National Anthem prior to kick-offs followed by some excellent bit of defending.
However, that was not the case on Friday Night as Goian was taken to task by the quick Goan Midfielders led by Coro upfront. Goian was beaten multiple times in both halves by Edu Bedia, Ferran Corominas and Ahmed Jahouh.
As the Goan midfielders showed immense pace in their play, Mumbai City FC defence were left in shambles, struggling to even man-mark the FC Goa strikers.
Lucian Goian also conceded free-kicks in dangerous zones outside the box, which posed an ample amount of threat to the Mumbai City goal on a few occasions.
Goian, being the captain of the side, was also in charge of holding his defence together which he failed to do throughout the 90 minutes.
#5 Hit: Hugo Boumous
Boumous displayed his intrinsic versatility on the pitch by moving up and down the field, the entire time. He helped create build-ups down the pitch for the Gaurs with his incisive bit of passing and also stood back to defend.
His brilliantly weighted ball inside the box towards Ferran Corominas caught Subhasish Bose in two minds and he brought down Coro resulted in a spot-kick, which the Spaniard finished with ease for 2-0.
Boumous' timely interceptions and tackles to steal possession came handy as well. A last-minute two-footed tackle with perfect timing on Rafael Bastos in the second half kept the game very much in Goa's control.
Boumous teamed up with Mourtada Fall to spearhead the defence and with Edu Bedia to play at the centre of the park and was impressive.
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