ISL: Tale of missed chances for Punjab FC as they lose against JFC at home

New Delhi: The few fans in the home stand shouting 'Punjab, Punjab' went home disappointed from Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium on Thursday as Punjab FC lost heavily against Jamshedpur at home.

Coming back from a brilliant away win against Kerala Blasters, Punjab fell to missed chances and the free-kick wizardry of Jeremy Manzorro in the second half.

Both teams started at a frantic pace with end-to-end football as Rei Tachikawa missed a sitter for JFC while Wilmar Jordan failed to execute a team move in the early exchanges.

Chima Chuku gave an early lead to the Red Miners as he capitalized on the error from the Punjab defence to pounce on the loose ball and slot past Ravi Kumar.

Punjab FC replied immediately after conceding the goal and won a penalty when Luca Majen was brought down inside the box. However, the Punjab skipper failed to convert from the spot, executing a poor penalty which was saved by JFC keeper Rehneesh TP.

Ricky Shabong, Luca, and Wilmar Jordan came close to scoring but failed to convert any chances despite having 10 shots on goal.

Acknowledging the frustrating performance in the first half, Punjab FC coach Staikos Vergetis said," We tried a lot of ways, especially in the first half, to score. We should have done two or three goals to say, more than it's the reality."

Punjab came out with more intent in the second half and troubled Jamshedpur FC with their continuous attacks down the left side but JFC doubled their lead in the 63rd minute. PFC keeper Ravi Kumar mishandled a simple shot and put the fumble in the path of Sanan who put it in the back of the net.

After the second goal, Vergetis's plan to play more offensive with substitutes coming from the bench backfired as Jamshedpur FC continued exploiting the free spaces in the backline of Punjab.

Jeremy Manzorro, who was the best player of JFC on the day, produced two stunning freekicks in the space of four minutes to put the game beyond the reach of the home team.

He scored two identical freekicks in the top left corner leaving the goalkeeper with no chance.

Punjab FC remains in ninth position with 14 points from 15 matches while Jamshedpur FC moves up to sixth position with 17 points from 16 matches.

"I believe that we have a bad result, very bad result. But we did not give a bad performance. It's from the days that you say, today, it's not my day," said Punjab coach Vergetis in the post-match press conference.

Punjab will play Hyderabad FC away on the 27th of February in their next fixture while Jamshedpur FC will host East Bengal FC on the 22nd of February.