Odisha FC’s hopes of a foray into the top four of Indian Super League was dashed by a superior Hyderabad FC as the Nizams rallied back to edge the Juggernauts 3-2 and also went atop the table at Tilak Maidan Stadium in Goa on Thursday.
Jerry Mawihmingthanga (45′) opened the scoring for hosts Odisha before Joel Chianese (51′), captain Joao Victor (70′) and Akash Mishra (73′) netted one apiece for Hyderabad. Super sub Jonathas de Jesus’s (84′) strike did raise hopes of a remarkable comeback at other end but that was too little too late as Hyderabad foiled their bid to take all three points.
Odisha remained in seventh place while Hyderabad consolidated their lead at the top with 23 points from 13 matches although Kerala Blasters, on second spot with 20 points, have two games in hand.
Odisha’s man-of-all-season Jerry Mawihmingthanga had given them an unexpected lead against the run of play just at the stroke of half-time with what was the Kalinga Warriors first attempt of the match on target. Hyderabad were by far the better competitor of the game but failed to penetrate the opposition defence to take a deserving lead. And Jerry was rewarded for his ever alertness to be at the right place at the right time.
The diminutive Mizo winger charged inches ahead of his marker to meet Nandhakumar Sekar’s low cross from left and beat Hyderabad goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani with a flick at near post. Odisha went into the breather with their nose ahead but Hyderabad returned a determined lot with retaliation on their mind.
It took the Nizams barely five minutes after change of play to go on level terms with Chianese heading home a Mishra cross into the far post beating Odisha keeper Arshdeep Singh.
Odisha tried hard to get back their lead but Hyderabad rode a brilliant strike from Victor to go 2-1 up when he received a pass from Asish Rai and made a swift turn before unleashing a shot first time that breezed past Arshdeep to shake the top right corner of goal.
Three minutes later, Hyderabad took the game away from Odisha when Yasir Mohammad’s swinging free-kick was flicked into the net by Mishra.
Odisha didn’t throw in the towel though. Jonathas fired home a powerful shot past Kattimani after he was fed by new signing Redeem Tlang to keep the game wide open but in the end Odisha had to go empty handed.