Farzin and Nafais orchestrated an unlikely fight back by Blue Star as they came from two goals down to draw the match 3-3 against Renown SC.
Blue Star were on the back of a 2-0 win against Matara City Club after successive defeats against Java Lane and Colombo FC while last year’s Dialog Champions League runners-up Renown are struggling to put together consistent performances.
However it was the hosts Renown who got off to a flyer at the Sugathadasa Stadium scoring the first inside the first ten minutes when Mohomed Fazal danced down the right flank towards the byline and made a cut back towards Shanmugaraja Sanjeev who showed good control to slot it into the net first time.
In the 20th minute Mohomed Farzin scored the first of his two goals when Ekene Emmanuel provided the assistance from the right flank. It was due to one of few mistakes by Fazul Rahuman who was playing in an unusual position of center back. The veteran former Sri Lankan midfielder had a nightmare in defense with his lack of defensive awareness and pace was exploited by the Blue Star attack.
It was not long after Renown added two more goals before halftime. In the 27th minute Renown rested the lead back when Blue Star lost the ball in midfield for Mohomed Rifnaz to exchange exquisite first touch passes with Fazal and Fazal unselfishly laid it out thick for Rifnaz to score.
Five minutes later, the Blue Star defense was caught napping again when they lost the ball and Rifnaz calmly rounded off the goalkeeper to score the third giving Renown a 3-1 lead into halftime.
The second half started with Blue Star making a tactical and positional change moving from the 3-5-2 formation to a standard 4-4-2 formation. It paid dividends as Farzin added his second of the night in the 57th minute when the ball fell at his feet after a scrap for the ball inside the penalty box.
Rejuvenated Blue Star sensing another goal stepped up their pace and equalized in the 62nd minute from a free kick. Mohomed Nafais was at the end of a free kick delivered from the left and made no mistake in heading it past a helpless goalkeeper.
There were a few contentious decisions going against Blue Star which did not board well with the Blue Star coach Mohomed Hasan.
Mohomed Nafeer threatened to take back the lead for Renown but his fierce shot was well saved by the Blue Star goalkeeper. With minutes remaining Fazul Rahuman delivered an exceptional free kick from 40 meters out but it bounced off the cross bar for a goalkick.
Speaking exclusively to ThePapare.com Blue Star coach Mohomed Hasan was clearly not happy with the refereeing but was happy with the teams fight back.
“It was a bad performance in the first half. I made a tactical change and brought in Nafais which changed the game for us. The refereeing is poor to say the least. We expect more from the referees but this is the standard of the referees in Sri Lanka.”
