I-League 2019-20: Neroca FC Held to Goalless Draw by Indian Arrows at Home

Imphal: The I-League encounter between Neroca FC and Indian Arrows ended goalless at the Khuman Lampak Stadium on Tuesday, February 11, 2020. The match saw Neroca attacking time and again but the Arrows pulled off a strong performance to keep the home team at bay. Neroca, with the draw, climb up to the eighth spot in the points table having 12 points from as many matches.

The first half of the match between Neroca FC and Indian Arrows was where the young Indian Arrows showed resilience and looked very difficult to break down.

They resorted to a possession-based game and because of that, they ended up with 52 per cent of the ball. The possession, however, didn't convert into goals as they could manage only one of the seven shots on target, which came from a free-kick by Ayush Adhikari in the 42nd minute. The shot was directed straight at the Neroca Captain Marvin Devon Phillip in the goal who wasn't troubled.

The half that saw a lot of battles in the midfield and fewer goal scoring opportunities ended at 0-0.

The first major opportunity of the match came in the 49th minute from a long throw for the Arrows. Vikram Partap got a head to the ball but it lacked direction and went over the goal.

Neroca tried to break the deadlock and an opportunity came through Ronald Singh. Neroca's winter transfer, Imran Khan, flicked the ball into the Arrows box and second-half substitute Ronald latched on to the ball and put it past the Arrows keeper but a goal-line clearance by the defence saved the day for the visitors.

In the 62nd minute, Adhikari came up with a perfect through ball, which found an unmarked Suranjit Singh's run, but the young winger's shot went past the far post.

In the 80th minute, a major chance came the way of the home side as Philip Adjah of Ghana came up with a goal-bound long-distance shot but an acrobatic Jongte denied him a stunning goal.

The last few moments of the match belonged to the young Arrows. In the 82nd minute, Rohit Danu was one-on-one with Marvin Devon Phillip, but his strike was brilliantly saved by the Neroca Captain.

The last major action of the game came in 90+6', when a through ball by Ricky Shabong found the run of Vikram on the left flank and the latter came up with a low shot on the near post but was again denied by the Neroca keeper.

The match finally ended all square at 0-0 and both teams take one point each from the encounter.