Santosh Trophy: Odisha score 4-1 win to leave Goa at bottom of group A

Panaji: Goa find themselves at the bottom of group A after losing their second game in a row, this time against Odisha FC 1-4 at the 76th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy in Bhubaneswar.

Goa had lost the opener 2-3 against Kerala with the defending champions scoring the winner in added time.

On Sunday, Odisha stunned the former champions as the hosts ran riot against a side that has leaked seven goals in two games now and looked sloppy all through the contest.

Odisha, interestingly, qualified for the Final Rounds only as hosts and were not among the teams that finished top two in the qualifying group.

The hosts opened the scoring in the 11th minute through Bikash Kumar Sahoo, and within half an hour were two goals ahead as Chandra Mohan Murmu found the back of the net.

Right before halftime though, Goa struck with Mohammed Faheez converting a penalty.

Where caution and stout defending may have been advised, Odisha felt better to attack. They controlled the ball with ease and speed, constantly harried Goa and scored two more goals through Rahul Mukhi (79’) and Anand Oram (90+6’).

Goa are now at the bottom of the pool after the second round, and even though there are four more games to be played, Norbert Gonsalves’ side will find it tough to finish among the top two and qualify for the semi-finals.

Prior to the start of the game, Goa had the chance to capitalise as defending champions Kerala lost to Karnataka 0-1, thanks to a strike from Abhishekh Powar in the 20th minute.

In the third game of the day, Punjab waited till added time and a bit of luck to defeat Maharashtra 4-3.