MAPUSA: Calangute Association put up a stellar performance to get the better of Football Club de Bardez with a solitary goal win in the GFA Goa Professional League match played under floodlight, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Sunday.
By virtue of this win, Calangute now have 31points from 16 matches while Bardez stay at 24 points from 15 matches.
Both sides having lost their previous league matches took on the field looking for nothing less than a victory keeping their vociferous supporters thoroughly entertained.
In the 7th minute, Josley Dias set up Sunny Fernandes whose shot from outside the box missed the Bardez goal by a whisker.
After some midfield action it was Bardez who came attacking in the 24th minute of play when Koko set up Peter Carvalho inside the danger zone whose header was not cleanly cleared away by Calangute defender Kouame Joaeph Yao however none of the Bardez players followed up to tap the ball home.
Five minutes into the match Alesh Sawant saw his 35-yard freekick take a wicked deflection off the Calangute’s Yogesh Kadam and sail just past the goal.
In the 32nd minute, Bardez keeper Mirshad Koottappunna came with a brilliant diving save to push away Yogesh Kadam’s low cross away for a corner.
Crossing over, the teams looked much more focused and initiated several threatening moves where in the 47th minute Calangute keeper Jason D’Mello did well to pluck Latesh Mandrekar’s corner before Yinka Joel Sunday Ayeni could get his head to the ball.
Two minutes later Peter Carvalho saw his low grounder go inches past the Calangute goal.
Calangute keeper Jason D’Mello put up a brilliant performance under the horizontal bar where in the 52nd minute he shot wide Latesh’s cross.
In the 59th minute Bardez suffered double set back where first they went down by a goal after Agnelo Colaco scored a gem of a goal for Calangute when he curled in his corner kick to the far corner of the Bardez nets. In the same moment Bardez keeper Mirshad Koottappunna suffered a nose injury and had to be taken off the field in an ambulance.
Thereon Bardez tried their level best to wipe out the deficit however keeper Jason did exceedingly well to time and again deny Koko Sakibo, Joel Sunday and Alesh Sawant from scoring.
Bardez came teasingly close to restoring parity in the 87th minute when Alesh Sawant sent in his corner kick into the heart of the Calangute danger zone however Koko and Joel Sunday failed to score from a goal mouth melee.
The match went into a record 12minutes of injury time being played however the Calangute keeper and defenders stood strong to thwart the efforts of the Bardez strikers.
