Odisha FC 0
lost to
Sribhumi FC 3 (Nongmeikapam Sibani Devi 10’, 18’, 32’)

AIFF Media Team

BHUBANESWAR: Sribhumi FC put paid to defending champions Odisha’s sojourn in the Indian Women’s League with a 3-0 victory at the Kalinga Stadium that condemned the hosts to relegation.

Odisha needed to eke out a result to even stand a chance at staying up, and within the first half an hour their fate was sealed, courtesy of a Nongmeikapam Sibani Devi (10’, 18’, 32’) hat trick. 

This was perhaps the most brutal and clear reminder that time, and football waits for no one. This was the first time in Indian football that the defending champions of a league have been relegated.

Despite the abjectly one-sided scoreline, it was Odisha who actually looked in the ascendancy in the first 10 minutes of the game, marshalling the ball neatly in midfield. In the 10th minute though, Sribhumi’s scoring spree kicked off, when Sibani picked up Anita Kumari’s cross outside the box and unleashed a right footer towards the goal. The shot took a deflection before nestling in the back of the net. 

A double hammer blow in the 18th and 32th minute, which effectively finished off the game — and Odisha’s chances of survival. For her second, Sibani displayed an unteachable poacher’s instinct, to sneak in at the back post and volley in Anita’s cross from inside the six yard box.

The third goal came off a massive error at the back for Odisha FC. The combination of first defender and goalkeeper failed to deal with a routine cross from the right, the latter spilling it loose inside the six yard box. Sibani duly tapped it in. 

Odisha FC’s performance improved significantly in the second half, and they came close to cutting the deficit, mostly through a series of set-pieces. Sribhumi weren’t sitting back either, and Bala Devi was perhaps guilty of missing a gilt-edged chance that would’ve definitively put them away. In the end, it didn’t matter as Sribhumi pocketed the points and condemned the hosts to an ignominious relegation.