93rd minute strike leaves Golden Eagles high and dry
The Sporting gaffer played the familiar 4-1-4-1 formation while making two changes to the side that drew against Calangute Association. Shawn Noronha and Joseph Pereira came in for Harpreet Singh and Akeraj Martins.
The Goan Network
Panaji
Sporting Clube de Goa took home full three points scoring a 1-0 victory over Dempo SC in a key encounter of GFA’s Pro League at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Monday. Victorino Fernandes' 93rd minute header sealed the Golden Eagles' fate.
The Sporting gaffer played the familiar 4-1-4-1 formation while making two changes to the side that drew against Calangute Association. Shawn Noronha and Joseph Pereira came in for Harpreet Singh and Akeraj Martins.
It took a good 18 minutes after the kick off for the fans to see a goalmouth action. Sporting’s Victorino made a promising run on the right to flick it back to an overlapping Harshad Naik whose thunderbolt shot curled away from the nets. Dempo SC got their first piece of action around half-hour mark when the Nigerian Fleix Chidi got hold of a good ball at the edge of the box and shot it inches away from the target.
In the 32nd minute Quan Gomes and Glan Martins combined well to display some entertaining one touch football to beat a swarm of defenders but couldn’t convert the same. Dempo once again came close in the 41st minute when Anthony D’Souza’s free kick went screaming past Joaquim Abranches who failed to make the decisive connect. The match stayed goalless at halftime.
Crossing over, Sporting were more than ever determined to do the damage as Gaffer introduced players like Mauvin Borges and Marcus Mascarenhas trying to sneak one in using their pace. However this time Dempo were the first to look dangerous when Mario Mascarenhas set Abranches with a good ball in the 48th minute but the latter lacked the finishing touch. Soon Sporting responded with a fantastic run between Ganesh Thakur and Victorino with the latter missing narrowly his chance to net the ball in. In the 59th minute Abranches once again came in the scoring range but his shot went straight into the hands of an alert Ravi Kumar. After this Sporting took charge of the matters on field. Quan Gomes and Glan Martins and Ganesh Thakur made some good moves among themselves trying to find Victorino upfront. The Dempo defenders were finding it hard to handle the pace of Marcus and Victorino.
At hour mark, Victorino got all the spectators at the edge of their seats with a dazzling run beating the defenders in the box but once again the final touch went inches wide of target. Just when everyone had thought the match would end in a stalemate Sporting’s pressure techniques paid off. In the last minute of the added time, Quan collected a good ball from the midfield and sneaked a pin-point cross, finding Victorino who this time perfected his jump beating Tyson Caiado to secure full three points for Sporting. With this win Sporting pocketed 8 points and will move one place up to the 4th position with a match in hand.
