Goa: FC Goa once again stumbled in front of Persepolis losing 0-4 at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Fatorda in the AFC Champions League. Head coach Juan Ferrando fielded a team with eight changes as was suggested by him due to fatigue of playing six games within around 20 days.
Ishan Pandita and Devendra Murgaokar were the ones leading the line for the Gaurs, while Naveen Kumar replaced the in-form Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem in goal. Redeem Tlang, Amarjit Singh, Princeton Rebello, Leander D’Cunha and Alexander Romario Jesuraj also got to start for the Men in Orange.
For the initial 24 minutes of sparring and Goa holding their ground, Persepolis finally gained the advantage as a slide-rule pass played just into the path of Shahriyar Moghanlu, was shot at the first touch. The left-footed effort was hit straight aimed at the goalkeeper, but Naveen failed to get down low in haste, giving the Iranians the lead.
Goa’s stern resistance was broken, and they could offer only one real effort on goal in the first half. It came from Alexander Romario around ten minutes after they conceded the opener. The Goan nerves at the back were exposed yet again on 43 minutes as Naveen fumbled a cross into the box and shortly a miscommunication resulted in him fouling Issa Alekasir in the penalty area and in the process, that called for a spot-kick.
The penalty was converted by Mehdi Torabi without any fail, This was his second from the spot in as many games against the Gaurs. The Indian side hoped that the second half would bring some joy for them but that optimism disappeared quickly as Alekasir cut inside from the left and fired a shot past Naveen from inside the penalty area to make it 3-0 just two minutes since the restart
Juan Ferrando decided to look to his bench for some solutions, but that decision only brought more troubles for his side. Mohamed Ali came on for his first piece of the action, and just off his first touch, he handed Persepolis a fourth as he failed to clear inside his own penalty area, and Kamal Kamyabinia was not the one to let a chance go as he smashed it home on 58 minutes and pile on the misery for the hosts.
Naveen Kumar did manage to make a couple of decent stops as the half went on and kept the scoreline from widening any further, although the Iranian giants continued creating pressure as they hit the post via a header from Mehdi Mehdikhani on 73 minutes and enjoyed the luxury of replacing several of their top players to keep them fresh for upcoming matches.
The positives collected from the game wad Makan Chothe looked lively as he got some minutes under his belt, and Jorge Ortiz managed a shot on target deep into stoppage time, but it was Persepolis who dominated throughout and saw the game out to take home three points for four consecutive games running in the AFC Champions League.
