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MAPUSA: Philip Odogwu’s two-goal blitz enabled Sporting Clube de Goa to register a comfortable 3-0 win over Calangute Association in the GFA’s Professional league, played at Duler stadium, on Monday.
With Monday’s win, Sporting continue to perch on top of the league table with 43 points from 19 matches while Calangute Association after a promising start to the campaign are stuck on 19 points from 17 matches.
All the damage was done in the first-half for Sporting with Nigerian forward, Philip Odogwu scored a brace while Marcus Mascarenhas etched his name on the score-sheet.
It did not take long for Sporting to open the scoring when Brendon Gomes’ defence-splitting pass found Marcus Mascarenhas who unleashed a firm grounder which gave no chance to the Calangute keeper Sanji Bugde.
Sporting’s Philip Odogwu almost scored his second goal five minutes later, but his powerful shot was brilliantly stopped by Calangute’s keeper.
Sporting looked menacing whenever they entered their opponents’ goal and got their second goal in the 12th minute when U-20 Dattaraj Goankar busted down the right flank, glanced up and sent a low cross in the box which found Philip Odogwu who drilled the ball into the goal.
Calangute too had their moments of getting back into the game but attempts from Dalesh Pednekar, Valerio Rodrigues and Domnic Fernandes lacked direction and did not pose much of a threat to Sporting’s keeper.
If it wasn’t for the brilliance of keeper Sanij, the score-line would be further embarrassing for Calangute as he brought two top notch saves to deny U-20 Stendly Fernandes and Delton Colaco from finding the net. Philip Odogwu got his second goal with a towering header to put Sporting in the driver seat before the half-time whistle from a cross delivered into the box by George D`Souza.
Changing ends, and in a comfortable position Sporting were still hungry for more goals but found it difficult to get past Calangute keeper Sanji who first collected a feeble shot from Philip and then kept out Alton Vaz’s low shot for a corner.
Sporting keeper Akshat Hadkonkar who had nothing much to do, brought two saves in quick succession in the 72nd minute to deny Chandan Govenkar and Domnic Fernandes in finding the net from close range to secure the clean sheet.
