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DULER
Sporting Clube de Goa came back strongly in the second half to register a 2-1 win over Salgaocar Football Club in the Goa Professional League, organised by Goa Football Association, at Duler stadium, here on Friday.
Sporting Clube in-charge Mateus Costa made six changes to his starting line-up after their humbling loss to Dempo Sports Club, as he fielded George D’Souza, Schubert D’Costa, Alton Vaz in defence, Cajetan Fernandes and Ganesh Thakur in the midfield and Marcus Mascarenhas upfront. At the other end, Salgaocar coach Levino Pereira -- pleased with the last two match wins -- made just two changes, Karan Shirodkar in defence and U-20 player Rollwin Almeida in the midfield.
At the breather, Salgaocar led with Mackroy Peixoto’s goal, while Sporting returned from the dressing room and scored twice, through Marcus Mascarenhas and Cajetan Fernandes.
The Green Brigade restricted their opponents inside their own territory for the first 20 minutes of the match, as number of the first-choice players of Sporting Clube were left on the bench by the coach. Early in the match, Salgaocar came close to opening their account on three occasions. In the very 2nd minute, Salgaocar skipper Mackroy Peixoto failed to keep his attempt on target after U-20 player Rollwin Almeida had done the spadework.
Minutes later, Ronaldo tried to find Devendra Murgaonkar inside the penalty box, but before the latter could get his feet sorted to take a shot, Sporting Clube keeper Melroy came forward and collected the ball. In the 18th minute, Salgaocar’s Devendra set up Ronaldo just outside the penalty box, but the latter’s stiff grounder was collected by keeper Melroy with a diving save.
Flaming Oranje did shine in patches, where they earned six corners in the first session but failed to score. A scorching right-footer from Stendly Fernandes was the only good attempt by Sporting Clube in the first half, which rebounded off the horizontal bar.
After much probing, finally in the 31st minute, the Green Brigade opened their account. A curling cross by Salgaocar’s Rollwin Almeida saw an overlapping Ronaldo Oliveira connect the ball at the goal which was blocked by keeper Melroy Fernandes. The ball travelled to Ronaldo and keeper Melroy brought him down, before he could shoot, prompting referee David Rebello to point to the penalty spot. Mackroy stepped forward and scored, sending his effort into the top corner of Sporting
goal, 1-0.
Trailing by a goal in the 41st minute, Sporting coach Mateus brought on Victorino from the bench, replacing Joston Cardoz to further strengthen the attack. On resumption of play, Sporting Clube attacked more and had two close attempts at the rival goal. In the 49th minute, a stiff grounder by Victorino was pushed for a corner with a full stretched diving save by Salgaocar keeper Jason
D’Mello.
Sporting were once again unlucky, when in the 55th minute, a floater by Glan Martins saw keeper Jason fumble with the ball which rolled to Victorino, whose blistering shot was blocked on the goal-line by defender Karan Shirodkar.
Finally in the 76th minute, the Flaming Oranje netted the equaliser. George D’Souza’s free kick inside the penalty box forced a clearance from Salgaocar defender Saurabh Patil but the ball hit the Salgaocar keeper’s gloves and travelled to Marcus Mascarenhas who slammed the ball into the goal, 1-1.
Sporting carried on their domination which fetched them the second goal. In the 83rd minute, Sporting Clube’s free kick specialist Cajetan Fernandes brilliantly curled the ball past the Salgaocar’s defensive wall to the far corner of the goal, giving no chance to keeper
Jason, 2-1.
In the added-on time, the Green Brigade had a chance to level terms, but Ronaldo’s shot at the goal over an advancing Sporting Clube keeper Melroy brushed the keeper’s gloves and the ball travelled to Stephen Satarkar, whose header missed the target narrowly.
PLAYING TODAY
Goa Professional League: Calangute Association vs Corps of Signals, Poriat grounds, 4 pm
