Daniel Chima Chukwu announces his arrival in style as Jamshedpur beat Goa 1-0
Jamshedpur registered a 1-0 triumph over Goa in ‘Match 74’ of the 2021-22 Indian Super League season. New signing Daniel China Chukwu’s 49th-minute goal was the solitary differentiating factor between the two sides.
The Red Miners’ head coach Owen Coyle made four changes to his starting XI. Chukwu was handed a start up-front in Jordan Murray’s place while TP Rehenesh came in for Pawan Kumar. Alex Lima replaced Mobashir Rahman in the middle of the park, whilst to maintain overseas count, Eli Sabia was sacrificed for Narender Gehlot.
On the other hand, Goa head coach Derrick Pereira made five changes to his team, two of which were forced as Princeton Rebello and Airam Cabrera replaced the injured Glan Martins and Jorge Ortiz. Besides that, Dheeraj Singh, Dylan Fox, and Saviour Gama made way for Naveen Kumar, Ivan Gonzalez, and Brandon Fernandes respectively.
The initial stages of the game were mostly midfield-oriented, with both sides failing to be clinical in the final third. The first major chance of the match fell to Chukwu when he outmuscled his marker inside the box, but his shot was wayward.
Goa’s first chance came just before the half-hour mark when central defender Gonzalez tried his luck from distance. His shot struck the cross and the ricochet fell kindly for Edu Bedia, whose effort was saved by Rehenesh in the Jamshedpur goal.
Unlike the bland first half, it did not take for the second half to light up as Chukwu announced his arrival in style in the 49th minute. Laldinliana Renthlei found the Nigerian striker with a chipped delivery from deep and the former East Bengal striker did well to beat his marker, Anwar Ali, with brute force. His shot was directed straight at Naveen, but the Indian goalkeeper made a mess of what should have been a routine save to hand Coyle’s team the crucial lead.
Besides Naveen, the linesman was equally responsible for the goal as the replays showed that Chukwu was in an offside position when the ball was played in from Renthlei. Three minutes later, Boris Singh found himself totally unmarked in the left flank but his half-cross-half-shot attempt was not good enough to double the Red Miners’ lead.
The Gaurs came agonizingly close to netting an equalizer in the 63rd minute. Ali tried to redeem himself by reaching Bedia’s curling freekick from the right flank, but his effort struck the underside of the crossbar and stayed out.
Alberto Noguera failed to capitalize on the opportunities
Five minutes later, a defense-splitting long ball from Gonzalez found Noguera in space inside the box but the former Atletico Madrid could not let the gilt-edged chance go begging as he lost his balance at the crucial moment.
The Gaurs threw the kitchen sink at the Red Miners in the last quarter but luck was not on their side. Cabrera tried his luck with a powerful left-footed strike in the 81st minute, but Pereira’s team was once again denied by the crossbar. Substitute Alexander Romario Jesuraj pulled the trigger barely a minute later but his effort was not on target.
In the 84th minute, Bedia found Gonzalez with a precise cross and the latter tried laying off the ball towards the path of another substitute in Leander D’Cunha, but Peter Hartley reached the ball before the Indian defender could.
With this win, Jamshedpur has now moved to second place in the standings, leapfrogging Kerala Blasters. They will now take on Bengaluru next Saturday, while the ninth-placed Goa will be up against Odisha on Tuesday.