Jamshedpur FC continued their terrific run since the arrival of head coach Khalid Jamil as the Red Miners swept Punjab FC 4-0 in their Indian Super League clash at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.
A brace by Jeremy Manzorro, coupled with a strike each by Daniel Chima Chukwu and Mohammed Sanan capped off a comfortable outing for Jamshedpur FC.
Nikhil Barla’s cross from the right flank was missed by all the defenders and fell perfectly for Chima Chukwu, who controlled with his left before slotting past the goalkeeper with his right to open the scoring in the 11th minute.
Punjab FC should have found the equaliser, but Luka Majcen’s penalty kick was well saved by TP Rehenesh and the score remained 1-0 to the visitors at the break.
Jamshedpur FC got their second in the 62nd minute. Manzorro made some space for himself before playing a long-distance shot. The ball was straight at Ravi Kumar in the Punjab FC goal, but he could not collect cleanly and Sanan pounced on the ball to lift it over the goalkeeper and into the net.
Again, Punjab FC seemed to have scored but Wilmar Jordan was flagged offside.
Manzorro, who has arguably been the architect in chief of Jamshedpur FC’s latest resurgence, took charge from there onwards, displaying his sublime skills from set-pieces by scoring from two direct free kicks in the concluding 10 minutes of the game.
Both goals came from roughly the same area of the pitch – towards the left flank with a fair distance to goal. And both shots were aimed towards the near post, with the first effort flying straight into the net while the second coming in off the post, away from a fully stretched Kumar.