MAPUSA: Clube Sao Miguel de Taleigao played their hearts out to hold Football Club Bardez to a 1-1 draw in the GFA’s Goa Professional League match, at Duler Stadium, on Wednesday.
Taking on the field without their skipper Peter Carvalho and Jessel Carneiro, FC Bardez seemed to lack the attacking punch thereby enabling their opponents to gather the much needed point.
In the first leg encounter Bardez hammered Taleigao 6-0.
Bardez now have 19 points from ten matches while Taleigao have 3 points from nine matches.
In the early minutes of the match, Bardez came attacking twice, where first Alesh Sawant saw his long range free-kick miss the Taleigao target by a whisker and then Girish Naik saw his firm header off Alesh’s corner being pushed away by Taleigao keeper Rohan Sheikh.
It was Taleigao that broke the deadlock in the 28th minute of play when Gopi Gad unleashed a rasping 25-yard shot which found no answer from the Bardez custodian Bilal Khan, 1-0.
Stunned by the goal deficit Bardez tried hard to get back into the match but Alesh Sawant was once again unlucky infront of the rival goal when his effort was superbly headed away by Taleigao stopper back Krishnanath Shirodkar.
Bardez head coach Armando Colaco tired to boost up his attack by introducing his new foreign signing Yinka Joel Sunday Ayeni in the 36th minute of play, however there was little that the Nigerian could do to break past the solid Taleigao defence.
Crossing over, Koko Sakibo took on the field in place of Myron Mendes and tried to create some threatening moves along with Joel Sunday, but the latter failed to keep his strike within the Taleigao woodwork.
Not amongst the ones to surrender to fate that easily, coach Armando introduced his trump card, former international Climax Lawrence in the midfield, which finally gave the required boost to the Bardez attack.
In the 72nd minute Richard Costa manage to sneak his way into the Taleigao defence only to be denied from scoring by Taleigao keeper Rohan Sheikh.
Couple of minute’s later keeper Rohan once again came to his sides rescue to push away Climax Lawrence’s strike from handshaking distance.
Their relentless pressure finally paid off in the 80th minute of play when keeper Rohan failed to hold onto Alesh Sawant’s hot-blooded freekick, where Yinka Joel Sunday Ayeni who was lurking nearby slotted the ball home, 1-1.
The Bardez colts survived a late scare, when Taleigao’s goal scorer Gopi Chand managed to find the back of the nets yet again, however this time he was ruled offside by the linesman.
