23 Mar 2018 | 04:58am IST
Vasco SC overpower Panjim
Franky scores a hat-trick while Micky adds his name to the scoresheet for the Port Towners; Egyptian Fady Riad nets brace for the City side
DULER: Vasco Sports Club registered a convincing 4-2 win over Panjim Footballers in the Goa Professional League match organised by Goa Football Association and played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Thursday.
Franky Oliveiro scored a hat-trick while Micky Fernandes also added his name to the scoreboard for Vasco SC. Egyptian Fady Riad scored a brace for Panjim.
With this win, Vasco climbed to the 7th position with 20 points from 19 matches while Panjim continued at the 10th position with 15 points from 18 matches.
Despite continuous attack from Panjim Footballers, Vasco SC managed to break the deadlock in the 19th minutes when unmarked Franky Oliveiro made no mistake to smartly head the ball home off Flan’s pin-point perfect cross from the left to put Vasco into the lead.
Energised by a goal, Vasco tried to control the match with better ball possession and continues attacks on the opponents but could not create trouble to Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh, whereas Panjim coach brought in Egyptian midfielder Fady Riad to replace Sachidanand but he could not make any difference in the match until the half-time whistle, while Franky and Micky made some superb clearances in the closing stage of the first half to keep the slender lead at the half-time.
Post resumption, Vasco doubled their lead through Franky. Flan snatched the ball from Panjim defender Paulo and released it to Franky who covered some ground and brilliantly shot past Panjim keeper Gurpreet from just inside the box.
Micky put Vasco on the driver seat when his powerful grounder from the left flank entered the far-post to make it 3-0 for the Port Towners.
At the hour mark, Franky completed his hat-trick as the striker easily cut past Panjim keeper Gurpreet after getting a hold of a through pass from Deryl Endro and slotted the ball home from close to make it 4-0 for Vasco.
At the other end, substitute Fady reduced the margin for Panjim in the 63rd minute.
With just five minutes remaining for the final whistle, Fady scored his second of the match when he headed in from close off Clifton Fernandes’ cross to make it 4-2 for the Capital city side.
