Ronaldinho runs riot as Goa steamroll Bengaluru; Chennai's poor show continues

Ronaldinho and Paul Scholes shared the same pitch after a long 8 years, with the duo last facing off in 2008. The Brazilian had disappointed in the first game, struggling to keep pace, but looked much better right from the off, setting up teammate Rafael as he struck the post in the opening minute, as Goa started the brighter side.

The Barcelona legend had the crowd in rapt cheers with a brilliant goal in the 6th minute, as a corner from the left was laid off to him in the box, but he exquisitely side-stepped the diving goalkeeper and slotted into an empty net to give Goa the lead. Bengaluru came back right at the end of the first quarter, as Maximiliano scored a brilliant solo goal, slotting from a narrow angle after a quick step over past the keeper.

The second quarter started with Bengaluru taking the lead through Jonathan Piers, who collected a pass and slammed it home with his left foot. Their joy was short-lived as Ronaldinho decided this was the moment to remind everyone why he is joga bonito personified. First, he scored with an eye-of-the needle shot when surrounded by two defenders and a diving keeper. The Brazilian maestro then completed his hat-trick and gave Goa a comeback lead with a first time reflex shot. Rafael set Ronaldinho up with an accurate pass sending the Chennai crowd wild, with the score at the end of the second quarter, 3-2 in Goa’s favour.

Paul Scholes struggled to influence the game in the third quarter, but his counterpart for Goa continued toying with the Bengaluru defence, first with a series of keepy-ups and then a mazing dribbling run. Scholes responded with a calm nutmeg of his own, before rolling back the years and setting up Jonathan with a lofted cross-field ball, but the Bengaluru forward’s shot at an open goal was weak, and cleared off the line.

If there was any doubt about his quality left, Ronaldinho obliterated it with a cheeky fourth in the 32nd minute, lofting the ball over a defender and into the net with Bengaluru keeper Elias stranded up field. Yet another Indian player made the scoresheet with Marshall making it 5-2 moments later tapping the ball from a yard out after Vampeta’s shot.

Vampeta repeated the trick at the end, seeing up Rafael to volley home the sixth for Goa, with Ronaldinho also having the time to miss a late penalty, before slotting home his fifth of the night from a counter. The match saw a lot of end to end play with both marquee players showing their experience in keeping the ball and enthralled the holiday crowd.

Later, in the second match, the home team faced off Kochi 5s to wrap up a pulsating three-day Chennai leg. Chennai started off strong to storm to a 4-2 lead before Kochi came back strong to ensure a 4-4 score line at the final whistle.

The home team failed to register a single win after losing to Mumbai 5s in their first match on Friday.

The Pele of Futsal, Falcao scored a brace but later had to be replaced when he pulled a thigh muscle. A heavily strapped Falcao looked on from the side-lines as Chennai looked depleted in the absence of their talisman.

Devias Moraes was a live wire and helped himself to a brace in an attempt to revive his team's fortunes. Chaguinha got onto the scorers list with a couple of goals as Kochi restored parity in the fourth quarter.

All attempts by Chennai to crawl back in the match were thwarted by an agile Kochi marquee Salgado as the score line stayed at 4-4 at the final whistle.