PANAJI
Sporting Clube de Goa missed a late penalty as they played out a drab goalless draw with FC Goa in the Goa Football Association Selvel Goa Professional League at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Thursday.
Both the sides had two changes in their line-up as Sporting Clube fielded Clive Miranda in defence along with Myron Fernandes, while for FC Goa, Brian Faria and Brison Fernandes returned to the starting XI.
While the play was restricted to being a midfield battle for the major part of the initial stages, Sporting Clube came close to scoring in the 15th minute when Myron Fernandes sent a long throw in the box, which was flicked behind at the back post to Dattaraj Gaonkar, whose toe-poked shot narrowly missed the side post.
Soon after the water break, Sporting Clube had a goal ruled out. Joel sent a cross from the left to Rohit Totad in the box, where he sent the ball to Philip Odogwu in front of the goal. After a tussle with the keeper and defender on the goalline, the ball was sent into the net from a goal-mouth melee by the Nigerian but the referee had blown the whistle for a foul on an FC Goa player.
FC Goa created a beautiful chance in the 42nd minute when Christy Davis lobbed a great ball to a speeding Sarineo Fernandes, who timed his run brilliantly to volley the ball only to see it hit the side netting.
Changing ends, FC Goa had the first chance in the 52nd minute when Delton Colaco ran down the left flank and set up Sarineo through on goal. But before the last-named could pull the trigger, Kunak made a timely tackle to send the ball for a corner.
Sporting Clube were making inroads into the FC Goa half using their flanks but they couldn't stitch together any threatening moves. During one such attempt, FC Goa’s Brian Faria made a vital interception to stop Rohit from finding Marcus in the box.
Sporting had a brilliant chance to score in the 74th minute. First, Marcus saw his goal-bound shot blocked by an FC Goa defender but the ball travelled to Philip, who sent the ball at the far post to Sachidanand. The winger whipped in a perfect delivery to Marcus, whose header from inside the six-yard box went over the crossbar. At the other end, FC Goa had two chances to score late in the game. But Delton couldn't connect his shot and then Aaron DSilva saw his weak effort sail past the post.
Sporting Clube were awarded a penalty late in the second half injury-time when Marcus was brought down in the box by Lesly Rebello. But Clive’s effort was easily saved by the custodian Antonio Da Silva. The rebound came back to Clive, who missed the target again.
