Sporting rally to hold Aizawl FC to 1-1 draw

Sporting Clube de Goa failed to cash in on the home advantage as they played out a 1-1 draw against Aizawl FC in an I-League football match at the Nehru Stadium here today.
In a dull and drab match Aizawl looked stronger of the two sides in the counter moves in the first half and took the lead in the 30th minute through Alfred Jayram.
The home side, who lacked the thrust to trouble the rival defence in the absence of their star striker Odafe Okolie, restored parity in the 37th minute through Mahmoud Al Amna.
The draw kept Sporting Clube de Goa to fourth place with 15 points from 13 matches. Aizawl FC, who are fighting to avoid relegation, took their tally to 13 points from 14 matches.

Aizawl FC enjoyed more ball possession in the latter part of the match and they looked more thrustful in their counter attacks with striker Ayene Joel Sunday Yinka and Alfred Kemah Jaryan posing threat to the rival defence whenever they had the ball in opponents' box.
Aizawl took the lead in the 30th minute from a counter attack. Ayeni Yinka, who found space on the right, moved deep into the rival box before sending a cross to Alfred Jaryan to score.

Sporting felt the absence of Odafe Okolie as debutant Efemena Charles failed to create any impact upfront.
Mohamoud Al Amna played one-two passes with Marcus Mascarenhas inside the rival box to beat a couple of defenders before he beat Lalwmpuia with a left footer to find the far post and have both the teams locked 1-1 at half time.

The second half was also a dull affair with neither of the two teams creating any real chance to score the winner. Sporting came close to scoring in the dying minutes but rival keeper Lalwpuia did well to save a Mahmoud Amna shot.