Kolkata: Substitute Ogba Kalu Nnanna struck after coming off the bench in the closing minutes to hand Sporting Clube de Goa a fine 3-2 win over a dogged Pailan Arrows in an intense Round-14 fixture of the I-League at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on Friday.
The match started off with Pailan Arrows having to defend more in their half while Sporting Clube pressed for the opening goal.
Victorina Fernandes broke Arrows' resistance early on with a brilliant 14th-minute goal. It seemed like the strong Pailan Arrows defensive game at home would be broken down. But the local challengers, looking for their first win, struck two goals in space of seven minutes to snatch the lead.
Arrows centre-forward CS Sabeeth scored the equaliser in the 28th minute while Bijendra Rai made it 2-1 in the 35th.
But there was more in store in the action-packed first-half, as the Goan outfit struck back through Rollin Borjes with a 45th-minute goal.
In the second-half both teams pushed for the all-important winner and resorted to counter-attacking instead of open style play. However, unlike the first-half, there weren’t any scorers and the match looked to be headed for a 2-2 draw. But the decisive goal eluded both the teams till Kalu's substitution in place of Freiman Mauricio Peixoto did the trick for the Goans.
Just when it seemed the AIFF developmental side would be content with another home draw, seasoned striker Kalu scored with just 5 minutes of play left.
The win takes Sporting Clube towards safety with 17 points from 14 matches, while the Arrows (7) are just above bottom-placed HAL Bangalore in the standings.
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