PANAJI
Sporting Clube de Goa were made to struggle to score the only goal of the match as a spirited Youth Club of Manora put a brave fight in a 0-1 loss in the Goa Football Association’s Selvel Goa Professional League at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Sunday.
Marcus Mascarenhas scored the winner in the 84th minute to maintain his team’s perfect start in the 2020-21 campaign.
Manora made three changes from their previous match as Savio D’Souza, Aaron Dias and Alison Saores started while Sporting Clube’s Gourav Kankonkar and Allan Peixoto started the game.
The first half was all about Sporting Clube de Goa, who dominated the proceedings with plenty of attacks and ball possession. They created chances but after doing everything right, their frontline couldn’t get past the disciplined Youth Club of Manora defence.
Sporting Clube should have been easily by a goal or two ahead in the game. The debutant Allan Peixoto saw his long-range effort go off target early in the game and then Girish Naik headed over the bar from Peixoto’s cross.
Sporting Clube squandered another chance when Marcus sent in a long cross in the box from the left flank to Gourav, who failed to direct his effort on goal.
The Panaji-based club nearly took the lead when Marcus hit a perfect free-kick from outside the box. Manora keeper Alison managed to dive to his left to stop the ball from sneaking into the net. However, the rebound fell to Allan, whose shot from a tight angle hit the post and came back into the play.
Sporting Clube were denied once again just before the break when Allan sent in a corner in the box which was nodded in by Alton Vaz. Although, the Sporting Clube skipper’s header beat the keeper the effort was cleared off the line by Caetano Fernandes. Brandon Gomes’ cross was then pushed for a corner by Alison, who was there once again to block Gourav’s shot from inside the box from the resultant corner.
Manora took control of the game and had a series of attacks. They should have scored in the 55th minute when they earned a free-kick outside the box. Nicholas Fernandes sent in a floater to an unmarked Savio D’Souza, who could have scored with just the keeper ahead of him, but his effort went way above the crossbar.
Sporting also came agonisingly close from a corner when Kunal’s header came off the upright and the rebound fell to Dattaraj, whose flicked header was brilliantly saved by Alison. Sporting Clube finally took the lead in the 84th minute when Myron Fernandes sent in a long cross in the box which was headed in by Marcus. This time Alison couldn’t do much to save the goal.
