Maharashtra, Goa share points

Both teams, already assured of their semi-final berths were obviously in no hurry to settle down and score. The Goan midfield of Mario Soares, Venkatesh and Jules Alberto never tried to make use of the yawning gaps offered by their retreating rivals.

At the other end, the Maharashtra strikers Najeeb and Manjit Sigh, who had caught the fancy of the spectators with their scoring prowess in the early matches, strangely delayed release of goalward shots, even when the rival goalkeeper was out of charge.

Neither team’s midfield exercised any control. The Maharashtra linkmen in particular, were conspicuous by their absence in the flanks. Though both Khalid Jamil and Khalid Siddique chased from the opening minutes, they were clearly short of vision, and rarely looked threatening. They gained more of the possession as the game wore on, but failed to maintain it for any extended period.

Within short period, Goa began to hit long passes forward, which the Maharashtra defenders hit back into the rival half to start counter attacks. One of them saw Venkatesh send a right-footed volley towards the far post, but Francis Silveira, who rushed in from the left, drove it awfully wide off mark.

The worst miss was the one by Maharashtra’s Najeeb, who delayed release of the ball from the goal area, after dribbling past a string of challenges. The striker hung on to the ball until Juje Siddi was on the spot well in time to ward off the challenge. Najeeb and Manjit were guilty of muffing a few more chances, mostly with their wild tries from well inside the box.

The Goans finally seemed to have made up their mind, as Mario Soares pushed home a Levy Coelho cross, after Roque Barreto sent the latter down the left with a clinical pass.

The goal threw the Maharashtra off their stride, and they began committing silly errors that made them easy preys to tackles. Sparks flew, as Maharashtra sent more men in search of a goal and tried to baffle the Goan deep defence with their swift movements around the penalty area.

The Goans once protested the decision of referee Michael Andrews, to overrule the linesman who ruled Maharashtra’s Abbas Ali Rizvi off-side, as he entered the box past three tackles. The match was slowly drifting into a temperamental affair. Maharashtra’s Herbert Philip was booked for his rough tackle on Levy Coelho.

Maharashtra struck in the 75th, when Bungo Singh, a replacement for Khalid Siddique, hammered home a Rajak pass, after Khalid Jamil floated in a flag kick.

TRANSFER PERIOD EXTENDED: The last date for acceptance of applications for the inter-state transfers has been extended to April 30, according to information received at the Kerala Football Association office, from the AIFF secretary KN Mour.