Manisha Naik scored in the 85th minute to salvage a draw for Sports Odisha against HOPS FC and earn her team their first point of the 2023-24 Indian Women’s League on Tuesday.
While HOPS FC moved to fifth place in the points table, Sports Odisha finally got off the mark for the season.
HOPS FC were knocking on the Odisha defensive line right from the start. Their tactic of playing long balls from the back was quite evident as they were trying to release Fredrica Torkudzor and Neha on the right and the left flanks respectively. Both teams failed to get control in the early stages resulting in a rather open game.
The first real opportunity fell to Neha, who hit the side netting from close range in the 25th minute. On the other end, Deepa Nayak came very close to giving Odisha the lead, but her long shot was well gathered by the goalkeeper.
HOPS FC started to get hold of the ball more towards the end of the first half and started dominating possession in the midfield. But Sports Odisha’s attacks caught the HOPS defence on the counter on a couple of occasions, which created half chances that were both missed by Rashmi.
Odisha made several attacks at the rival goal. A good chance fell to Rashmi again but she put her shot over the bar in the 51st minute. However, to the disappointment of the Sports Odisha fans, Torkudzor scored from a brilliant cross by Neha to give HOPS FC the lead totally against the run of play in the 68th Minute.
Odisha desperately pushed forward for an equaliser, putting their defensive line at risk of being overpowered by Neha and Torkudzor. The pressure from Sports Odisha finally paid off when a long-range shot from Subhadra hit the crossbar and fell straight into the path of Naik to score from a simple header in the 81st minute and earn the first point for her team.