NEROCA paid the price for Felix Chidi's missed penalty in the 76th minute as they drop crucial points against Minerva at home....

NEROCA FC and Minerva Punjab played a goalless draw in an I-League 2018-19 clash on Sunday at the Khuman Lampak Stadium, Imphal.

Manuel Fraile Retamero decided to field an unchanged NEROCA lineup which defeated Churchill Brothers 2-1 in their last.

Paul Munster, on the other hand, made seven changes in the Minerva XI which lost 1-0 to Mohun Bagan earlier this week. Bhaskar Roy, Prateek Joshi, Deepak Devrani, Thoiba Singh, Arashpreet Singh, Makhan Chothe and Moinuddin Khan replaced Arshdeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Philip Njoku, Jagpreet Singh, Souvik Das, Akash Sangwan and Yu Kuboki.

Both teams took a safety-first approach as neither of them wanted to drop any points in this match. While NEROCA needed at least a point to remain in the top half of the league table, Minerva were desperate to climb up from the bottom half.

The trio of Subhas Singh, Katsumi and Felix Chidi often created chances but the Minerva defence under the leadership of Lancine Toure did a fine job in keeping them at bay.

The teams went into the dressing room after a drab first half with the scoreboard unchanged.

The second half started on a much brighter note as both the sides came out all guns blazing. Prateek Joshi came close to score in the very first minute of the second half as Eduardo made a mess of his clearance from William Opoku’s cross. Thanks to Lalit Thapa’s reflexes in front of the goal, Joshi’s shot was kept out.

NEROCA increased their intensity in attack as the match progressed. Subhas Singh and Katsumi continuously tormented the Minerva defenders by launching a series of attacks.

The home team got the ideal chance to break the deadlock in the 76th minute when Minerva’s Amandeep Singh handled the ball inside the box while trying to stop Felix Chidi’s shot from a close range.

Unfortunately, to NEROCA’s agony, the striker blasted the ball above the crossbar and denied Manuel Fraile’s side to take the lead.

The hosts there after created numerous chances and came close to score a goal but the Minerva backline were absolutely rock solid and successfully kept a clean sheet.

NEROCA remained at the fourth position after today's match with 15 points from nine matches, while Minerva Punjab climbed above Mohun Bagan to the sixth position with 13 points from 10 matches.