Mumbai beat Kolkata 4-2 in the first Premier Futsal semi-final at the Peddem Indoor Stadium in Goa on Saturday night. Angellot was the hero for the side in blue and white as he grabbed a hat-trick to send them through to the final.
The first quarter was an absorbing contest with both Mumbai and Kolkata experimenting with various pass-and-move routines to get in behind their opponents’ defence. Mumbai had more chances on the counter-attack with Chanpreet and Foglia creating a few chances but Kolkata goalkeeper Cidao stood strong.
However, Angellot gave Mumbai the lead with a fine effort inside the box. With the ball at his feet, he rounded Cidao and the defence to calmly chip the ball into the net to make it 1-0. Foglia also had a chance on another counter at the end of the quarter but Cidao scrambled back to deny the veteran player.
Angellot doubled the lead seconds into the second quarter with a superb toe-poke. After getting the best of Pula on the left flank, Angellot pulled the trigger from outside the D to beat Cidao and find the bottom corner of the net.
After going 2-0 down, Kolkata poured players forward which allowed Mumbai to counter-attack at will whenever they won the ball back. Mumbai had the advantage in numbers on many occasions but failed to find a third until, ironically, Mumbai had players back in defence. Ramirez received the ball at the edge of the D and took a shot that went through Cidao’s legs to make it 3-0.
But Kolkata stormed back in the third quarter. On one instance, Mumbai goalkeeper Luis Amada’s clearance was not good enough and Vander Carioca pounced on it to strike the ball from near the half-line into an empty net. Moments later, Cidao found Gabriel with a long pass and his toe-poke finish saw Kolkata erase reduce the three-goal deficit to just one.
Kolkata’s tactic of bringing their goalkeeper out as an extra player in the buildup backfired when Gabriel lost control of the ball under pressure from Angellot. The Mumbai player calmly fired from near the half-line to make it 4-2 and also became the owner of the Golden Armband as he became the tournament’s top scorer with 7 goals.
Mumbai did have a couple of chances more with Krishna Patil also almost getting on the scoresheet. The closest Kolkata came was a Cidao piledriver that came off the post as Mumbai held on to seal a spot in the final.
