Goa, July 23: In a thrilling encounter, Mumbai 5s held their nerve to defeat Kolkata 5s 4-2 in the first semi-final of the Premier Futsal and storm into the finals to be played tomorrow.
Mumbai's in-form player Colombian Angellot, who starred in the win with three goals, was ably supported especially by Charanpreet and Fogila during the match played at the Peddam Inddor Stadium here.
Angellot continued his good form and netted the ball in the 9th minute and gave the side a lead over their rivals. He displayed some outstanding skills as he scored evading the Kolkata defence.
Both the sides, though were aggressive in their approach in the quarter, Mumbai 5s had an upper hand. Kolkata players too had their chances, but missed them on occasions. The story remained the same in the second quarter with Mumbai dominating and scoring 2 goal to make it 3-0 at the half time even as their crowd cheered for their marquee player and former Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs.
In the 11th minute, it was Angellot again who scored his second goal and extended the lead. The coordination and passes of the Mumbai players was up to the mark and so were their counter attacks. Kolkata remained clueless in this quarter. In the 20th minute, Kevin Ramiraz made it 3-0 as he nut megged the keeper and put pressure on them.
Futsal is a game where things can change within minutes and Kolkata 5s fans witnessed it in the third quarter as they tried to bounce back by scoring two quick goals. While it was Vander Carioca who scored in the 22nd minute with a brilliant volley, in the 24th minute in what was a successful counter attack, Gabrial netted the ball to make it 3-2.
In the other match, Kochi beat Goa 2-1 in the second Premier Futsal semi-final at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Goa on Saturday night to seal a spot in the final. They will now take on Ryan Giggs’ Mumbai 5s on Sunday.
The game was literally a battle between two legends – Kochi 5s’ Michel Salgado and Goa 5s’ Cafu. The duo may have been retired for years but they went toe-to-toe on the pitch and the crowd witnessed a physical battle of proportions not seen before in the tournament.
Salgado was at his very best and ever-present on the pitch as he ran things for the Kochi side while Cafu also had his chances on goal to give the home side the lead but the first quarter ended 0-0.
However, Kochi soon took the lead with a scintillating goal from Chaguinha. Running across the pitch with the ball and under pressure from Rafael, Chaguinha chipped the ball past the advancing goalkeeper Bebe to find the back of the net. Rafael almost made up for his error at the other end when he let fly a fierce strike that beat Casalone but came off the post.
The second half saw Goa quickly find their foothold in the game and it was Vampeta who scored the equaliser. A patient build-up saw him play a one-two with Georgievsky saw him receive the ball near the edge of the area and fire in a thunderous shot that found the roof of the net.
But the lead did not last long. A bit of complacency saw Chaguinha steal in between the defence and goalkeeper Bebe to simply put his foot in the way to prevent the goalkeeper from holding on to the ball. The move worked and the ball trickled into the goal uncontested to give Kochi the lead for the second time.
Kochi managed to hold on in spite of sustained pressure from Goa and the final whistle saw the Kochi players celebrate with their inspirational player Salgado while Cafu was denied a chance to play in the final. Chaguinha also became the top goalscorer and took the Golden Armband after his eighth goal in the tournament.
