MAPUSA: Goan Football Club stunned Dempo Sports Club as they registered a 3-0 win in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, on Wednesday.
With this win, Goans have 14 points from 10 outings, while Dempo have 24 points from 11 matches.
It was a 4-0 win for Dempo when they last met in the league before, while they had defeated Vasco in their last league match.
Whereas, Goan who had suffered back-to-back defeats in the last matches against Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube de Goa, started without their four regulars, Meldon D’Silva, Hayden Fernandes, Kingslee Fernandes, Brian Faria and Jonathan Cardozo where Aaren D’Silva, Saviour Gama, Jason Barbosa, Veegan Ferrao and Rinjoy Fernandes replaced them in the starting XI, while Mario Mascarenhas was the only change in the Dempo line-up.
Dempo started the match on a bright note as they took just 2 minutes to create their first chance when Yogesh brilliantly cut past a defender to enter the box and shot on the goal but his strike missed the target by a whisker.
In the very next minute, Goan came close to scoring as Liston found Aaren with a cut-back pass but the striker saw his grounder brilliantly collected by Dempo keeper Agnelo Gomes.
Three minutes later, Dempo conceded a penalty when their defender Mario Mascarenhas brought down Liston in the box.
Liston himself stepped forward and made no mistake to take his side into the lead with a fine shot from the spot which sent the keeper the wrong way making it 1-0 for the junior Gaurs.
On crossing over, Goans came close to scoring with just a few seconds in the second session when their midfielder Krishna Pandit made a superb run on the wing cutting past few rivals but failed to capitalise on the opportunity.
However, in the 55th minute, Goan doubled their lead through Yasir as the attacking midfielder’s scorching strike from the top of the box entered the bottom corner to make it 2-0 for the Goans.
The fans had hardly settled down from the second goal when Aaren once again brought them to their feet when he brilliantly tapped the ball in from close to Veegan Ferrao’s low cross.
Dempo tried hard to get back into the match as they made numerous attacks on the rivals but none of their moves broke Goan’s strong defence as the Gaurs grabbed all three points from the match.
