The Goa 5's started their home leg of the Premier Futsal league on Tuesday in haggard shape. Their best player, some would argue the best in the tournament, Ronaldinho had left them midway, due to other commitments. His replacement, former Brazilian captain Cafu, was yet to join them.

To make matters worse, in front of their fans, they trailed 0-2 to the Kolkata 5's thanks to two exceptional goals: one from Pula, who twisted around to fire in a long-ranger, and the second from Carioca, who received the ball with his back towards goal and proceed to embarrass the goalkeeper.

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But despite being under the cosh, Goa displayed tremendous resilience to force their way back into the match. A blistering counter-attack from Vampeta allowed him to easily side-step it past Kolkata's keeper Cidao. Three minutes later, in an almost similar move, Cidao came miles off his line and was suitably punished by Vampeta again, as Goa came back from a two-goal deficit to escape with the honours even.

There were silky skills on display in the other game of the evening, a closely-fought contest between Mumbai and Chennai. Foglia put Mumbai ahead 1-0 after muscling the ball away from Chennai skipper Sean Garnier. However, Chennai were level soon via the skipper, who chested Nanda's cross into the net.

Romulo gave Mumbai the lead again with an absolutely scorcher, burning its way through the net, before Chennai levelled again via a fierce shot from Angellot. Chennai even took the lead for the first time through another Angellot goal, but Mumbai's comeback was spearheaded by the wily Ryan Giggs who showed tremendous presence of mind to run onto a pass and direct it goalwards.

Then, in the last quarter, Foglia gave Mumbai a vital 4-3 victory after placing another goal between the keeper's outstretched legs. Thus, Mumbai became the first team to book their place in the semi-finals.