FC Goa bid farewell to Manolo Marquez with a trophy, as Borja Herrera’s brace led the way, as they won the Super Cup with a 3-0 win in the final over Jamshedpur FC. Dejan Drazic put the exclamation mark on the win in the second half, as Goa underlined their superiority as the second best team in Indian football this season. With that win, Goa have also qualified for the playoff stages of next season’s AFC Champions League 2. If they fail to win that playoff game, they will play in the AFC Challenge League,
After beating an under-strength Mohun Bagan in the semifinal, Goa went into the final as favourites, but they would’ve also been wary of their record against Jamshedpur this season – they lost both games in the ISL this season against Khalid Jamil’s team.
Jamshedpur started pretty well too, with a couple of early snapshots from varying distances coming from Rei Tachikawa and Javi Hernandez. However, Goa then put their foot on the ball in midfield, and started to control proceedings a lot more. The breakthrough eventually came midway through the first half, and it was a move started by Aakash Sangwan and finished off by Herrera.
Sangwan’s shot from range was parried into a dangerous area by Albino Gomes, Herrera’s first shot was then blocked stunningly by Stephen Eze, but there was nothing anyone could do about the next rebound, as Herrera had an empty net in front of him, and he finished with aplomb into the roof of the net.
Jamshedpur had a couple of chances off set-pieces towards the end of the first half, but they couldn’t make the most of it. Around the hour mark though, Herrera made it a mountain to climb for Jamil’s side. He got hold of the ball around the halfway line and charged forward with it before unleashing a shot from 30 yards out, that arrowed into the top corner, giving Albino no chance in goal.
Drazic then rounded off Goa’s victory after latching on to Carl McHugh’s excellent through ball, to then round Albino and then roll home an easy finish into an empty net.
After that, Jamshedpur didn’t particularly create any chances, in the midst of a heavy thunderstorm, as Goa celebrated in the rain, to round off the Indian Football season for 2024-25.
You can relive the game, as it happened, right here: