Sporting Clube de Goa 3 (Clive Miranda 6', Rohit Total 20', Akeraj Martins 48') bt Panjim Footballers 1 (Irfan Yadwad 53')
PANAJI
Defending champions Sporting Clube de Goa enjoyed a perfect start in the Goa Professional League with a 3-1 win over Panjim Footballers at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Saturday.
Clive Miranda (6'), Roh
Sporting Clube started with Marcus Mascarenhas upfront along with newly promoted academy player Rio Fernandes playing as an attacking midfielder. Another academy graduate, Liston Cardozo, also started for Sporting Clube on the right wing while Ozen Silva started in goal. For Panjim Footballers, new signing Franky Oliveira led the attack along with Irfan, while Malcolm Gonsalves and Lokeshkumar Talwar were slotted in the midfield.
Sporting Clube took just six minutes to take the lead as Clive Miranda scored the first goal of the Goa Professional League season 2021-22 which came from a set-piece. Girish Naik’s corner was headed on target by Marcus Mascarenhas, which was blocked by Panjim Footballers keeper Preston Rego. However, Clive was quick to poke the ball into the net off a rebound, 1-0.
With the defending champions dominating with impressive play from their newly promoted youngsters, they deservingly doubled the lead in the 20th minute. Dattaraj Gaonkar tried his luck with a low grounder from outside the box, but his off-target shot was stopped by his team-mate Rohit Totad and he placed it past Preston in Panjim goal. Panjim players claimed for an offside, but the youngster was fairly on, beating his marker, 2-0.
Panjim’s Irfan was impressive in the opening minutes though he lacked support from his side. However, they had a rare opportunity when Arif Pathan played a long ball in the box, which was headed over by Irfan over the onrushing keeper, only to see it sail over the bar.
Marcus squandered a golden opportunity to inflate the scoreline when the Panjim defence failed to deal with Liston’s low cross. The veteran striker had just the keeper to beat, but his poorly taken shot was easily saved by Preston. Panjim’s Irfan was then denied by keeper Ozen in the 40th minute when the former was set through on goal by Pratik Naik.
Sporting Clube didn’t allow Panjim to settle after the restart as they scored their third in the 48th minute. Rio Fernandes challenged a Panjim player and sent the ball to Akeraj Martins, who dribbled past three Panjim defenders and slotted home to make it 3-0.
In the 53rd minute, a defensive error from Girish Naik saw Irfan get the ball outside the box. The lanky striker fought his way into the box and slammed the ball into the top right corner giving no chance to Ozen under the bar.
Panjim came agonisingly close to scoring their second when Lokeshkumar tried a shot from a distance. It took a slight deflection off a Sporting Clube player and went out for a corner. The remainder of the game didn’t produce any noteworthy action as the match ended 3-1 in favour of Sporting Clube.
