RAIA: In an exhilarating showdown at the 17th All Goa Guirdolim Panchayat Cup inaugural match played at Chandor church sports complex, Maina Sports Club got the better of Arlem Youth Association, Raia, 3-2.
The match started with Arlem Youth dominating proceedings but found the Maina SC defence led by Maldino Rodrigues a hard nut to crack. Arlem Youth’s persistent attacking paid dividends in the 27th minute when Achilles Fernandes coolly placed the ball into the goal hoodwinking the Maina SC keeper. Hardly had the cheers from the goal died down, Arlem Youth’s Sheehan Fernandes made it 2-0 in the 28th minute with a thunderous volley from top of the 18-yard box.
At the break, Arlem Youth were leading 2-0.
Changing over, Maina SC were a transformed side with the midfield feeding their forwards with long passes. One such long ball from Caitano Viegas found Anselm Fernandes, who made no mistake in lobbing the ball over an onrushing Arlem Youth keeper in the 36th minute to reduce the deficit for Maina SC to 2-1. Immediately, Anselm scored his brace in the 48th minute to bring Maina SC on parity (2-2) with a powerful strike from a distance.
In the 57th minute, a goalmouth melee off a corner kick resulted in Joshua Rebello finding the back of the net making it 3-2 in favour of Maina SC. With this win, Maina SC booked the quarter-finals berth.
Earlier, the players were introduced to chief guest Sandeep Kalekar and guest of honour Vincey Antao.
