FC Goa came away with a draw against hosts Atlético de Kolkata, after going in at half time with a one-goal lead. Kolkata clawed back into the game when Bruno Pinheiro was sent off for bringing down Fikru inside the box, and he did well to put away the penalty.

As a result, FC Goa finished the league stage in second place, and will face third placed Kolkata again in the semifinals over two legs, away and home, to decide who will proceed to the final. Goa defender Youness Bengelloun returned to the starting lineup after the game away at Mumbai, with coach Zico opting to rest some of his key players and giving others a workout before the semifinals.

Many expected Goa to struggle after the line-ups were revealed, but Kolkata looked like the team on the back foot throughout the match. “You could see that all the players were ready to play. We scored a wonderful goal and played good football,” said the French defender, in an exclusive post-match interview with indiansuperleague.com. “We made one mistake in defence and they got a penalty. I don’t think they would have scored if they hadn’t got the penalty.” The penalty was awarded when Pinheiro was shown a straight red for seemingly tripping Fikru when he was in a goal scoring position. But Bengelloun felt the decision was unfair. “The referee shouldn’t have given a red card, I think it was a yellow card.”

A lot has been made of Goa’s rivalry with Kolkata, especially after a heated first leg, but the second leg was relatively incident-free, barring the sending off. The defender brushed off the talk of facing the same team in the semifinals within days of this match, saying, “It’s football, so it doesn’t matter who we’re going to play. It’s a semifinal match so it’s going to be totally different.”