Visitors make light work of Delhi Dynamos to garner three full points with 4-1 win
It was a battle between the teams at the bottom of the table. Delhi Dynamos knew it well that a loss here could well turn the tables up and down as FC Goa were desperate to take these three points in order to shed their tag of losers.
And, when the whistle was blown after 90 minutes, FC Goa walked away with three crucial points. Youness Bengelloun's twin strikes and Robert Pires's one in Goa's 4-1 win against hosts Delhi were enough for the visiting side to score their maiden away win in the Indian Super League at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.
It was a complete rout as Goa punished the home team, who managed to get only one consolation goal towards the end. The two teams swap places on the points table with Delhi being pushed to the bottom.
Goa drew the first blood in the form of Bengelloun's goal. Debabrata Roy passed on to Robert Peter but Delhi 'keeper got in between only to find Bengelloun find the net.
Although there were no more goals in the first half, Goa kept attacking Delhi at regular intervals. It was Bengelloun again early in the second half who made the scoreline 2-0. Andre Santos sent a great curling ball into the box and Bengelloun calmly headed it into the goal as Delhi custodian Van Hout was left stranded hopelessly.
Goa maintained the pressure on Delhi as Robert Pires converted a penalty to leave Dynamos reeling 0-3 in the 53rd minute. And the score swelled up to 4-0 when Tolgey Ozbey completed a fine solo effort on the hour mark.
Delhi managed to reduce the lopsidedness of the scoreline through a Gustavo dos Santos penalty, obtained after substitute Francis Fernandez's centre was blocked by a trailing arm of defender Debabrata Roy, but by then Delhi's humiliation was complete.
Delhi's marquee player Alessandro del Piero was kept waiting on the sidelines. Why he was not introduced during the game could well be interesting to know in coming days.
The win helped Goa jump above their opponents to seventh in the table with eight points from as many matches. Delhi dropped to the last spot, managing seven points from eight outings.
Stopwatch: Delhi Dynamos 1 (Do Santos 72) lost to FC Goa 4 (Bengelloun 18, 48, Pires 53, Ozbey 60)
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