PUNE: A second half strike by Mehrajuddin Wadoo proved to be decisive as Bharat FC edged past Sporting Clube de Goa in an I-League match played in Pune, on Wednesday evening.
Stuart Watkiss, the coach of the hosts, made three changes to the side that lost 2-0 to Mumbai FC in the last match. Bobby Hassell, Tomba Singh and Dharmaraj Ravanan came back to the starting lineup at the expense of Jayaseelan Prasad, Bikramjeet Singh and Steven Dias.
On the other hand, Mateus Costa also made an equal number of changes in the first eleven with Ravi Kumar, Rowlin Borges and Sumeet Passi making way for Lalit Thapa, Joyner Lourenco and Pratesh Shirodkar.
The visitors tried to draw first blood in the opening minutes and had a couple of free-kicks in advantageous positions. However, the shots taken by Jovel Martins and Rowlin Borges were dealt with by the Bharat FC defense with ease.
In the 17th minute, Mehrajuddin Wadoo combined brilliantly with Romauld Boco as the latter showed some lovely footwork to release the ball onto the path of the former India international. Mehraj sent in a good low cross into the area, but after some fumbling, the Miguel Garcia-led defense cleared it to safety.
In the following minutes, both the teams tried to make inroads into opponent territory, but couldn’t make any clear-cut chances.
On the half-hour mark, Mehraj tried to loop the ball into the net after receiving it post a last-ditch clearance by Sandesh Jhingan; but the left-footer sailed well away from the target.
The teams went into the break with the deadlock yet to be broken.
After the breather, Watkiss’ wards finally found the back of the net on the hour mark. Mehrajuddin Wadoo, the seasoned professional, timed his header perfectly on target and the powerful effort took a touch from the Sporting shot-stopper before going past for the opener.
