Tension prevails as Vijay, Joao shown red cards
TEAM HERALD
OLD GOA: FC Neura edged out Sateri SC, Chimbel 5-4 via the tie-breaker to enter the next round of GFA 3rd Division Ilhas Zone play-off at Santa Cruz ground, Sunday.
Making its intention clear, FC Neura started on an aggressive note from the word go. However, their strikers failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that came their way.
The best opportunity of the first half came in the way of FC Neura’s Shannan Fernandes, who however shot wide after finding himself in a one-to-one situation with Sateri custodian Virendra Kunkalkar.
Crossing over, the story of missed chances continued as FC Neura were unable to find the elusive goal despite dominating for major portion of the second half.
FC Neura’s Rajat Gauns should have settled the tie in his side’s favour but he ballooned over from close range, off a corner.
However, at the fag end of the match, tension prevailed as Vijay Adkonkar of Sateri and Joao Lopes of Neura nearly came to blows after both kicked each other. For unsporting behaviour, referee first flashed the red card to Vijay, which prompted the Sateri supporters, who were inside the ground rushed towards the referee.
However, after consultation with the match officials, the referee then flashed the red card to Joao Lopes also, which brought the situation under control to a large extent. But, the Neura supporters, who were in the stands, continued hurling abusive words at the referee for showing red card to Joao.
With the full time yielding no result, the tie-breaker came into force wherein Govind Mahale, Sudesh Kunkalkar, Rajat Gauns, Jovino Misquita and Shannan Fernandes converted for Neura while Amit Kunkalkar, Vinod Achari, Amit Shirvoikar and Gajanand Murgaonkar were on target for Sateri.
The last penalty kick of Sateri’s Virendra Kunkalkar was saved by substitute Neura goalkeeper Sudesh Kunkalkar to give his side a deserving win.
