Kolkata defeated Goa 4-2 as Hernán Crespo led from the front in an engaging Premier Futsal encounter against Ronaldinho’s Goa 5’s.

It could have been a dream start for Ronaldinho as he almost produced the first goal of the game with a typical no-look pass to Rafael that was saved by Cidao.

Goa suddenly found themselves two goals down in a matter of minutes. Pula was the first one to find the back of the net with his head after a deflected cross. Then, we had the first Indian goalscorer of the tournament as Goa found themselves in a 3 on 1 situation and Crespo setup Mohammed Islam for a simple tap in.

Ronaldinho tried to spark some life into the Goan attack in the 2nd quarter. He tested Cidao with a neat drag-back flick but he was too close to the keeper with all his angles closed down and his back to goal.

Just after the restart, Goa got themselves back in the game. Rafael’s toe poke deflected off the goalkeeper in his attempt to save it and landed in the back of the net. The chance was created after a great pick out by Georgievsky. Goa found themselves two goals behind yet again as Carioca’s freekick fooled the defence with a short pass to Crespo and his striker’s instinct kicked in finishing with aplomb to make it 3-1.

Goa hadn’t given up on the game yet as Vampeta made it 3-2 before the end of the 3rd quarter. A slack pass from Pula deflected of Rafael into the path of the Brazil-born Italian who put it into an open goal. Kolkata restored their two-goal cushion in the 4th quarter as luck was in their favor. As they went on the attack, a shot at goal ricocheted off Mohammed Ahtesham Ali and the ball rolled into the open net with the keeper in no-mans land.

Ronaldinho had a couple of chances after that to score but Kolkata held on for a 4-2 win.

(Premier Futsal Press Release)