PANJIM: Beevan scored two in the added time to help Dempo Sports Club to script a comeback 3-2 win over Vasco Sports Club in the Goa Professional League match organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium here on Tuesday.
Dempo had the best pre-season as they had won the AWES Cup defeating Kerala side Gokulam FC in the final. Vasco had experienced mixed, winning and losing two each and drawing three against other Goa Pro league sides.
Vasco Coach Eban Mesquita named his assistant Micky Fernandes in the line-up to strengthen his defence, while he also brought in Clive Coelho, Anil Gaonkar and Treyson D’Costa in the starting XI. Dempo Coach Samir Naik also made two changes to his side as Latesh Mandrekar and Desmon Pereira were back in the squad.
The first few minutes of the match were restricted to the midfield play from the sides as both the teams were never seen with intent to find the net. In between these, Beevan D’Mello had a chance to take Dempo Sports Club into an early lead but his flick shot from close hit the Vasco defender Treyson D’costa and went out for a corner.
In the 16th minutes, Dempo were stunned by Vasco Sports Club as Beneston Barreto smartly tapped-in from the close after receiving a pass from his teammate Clive Coelho and sent all their supporters in raptures.
Just after the first goal, the match again witnessed a midfield play. However, Vasco enjoyed the better ball possession in the session but failed to add more to the tally. Whereas Dempo also had a chance to equalise when Beevan’s corner rolled Desmon but his shot went over the crossbar from inside the box.
Dempo Sports Club Coach Naik understood the weak point in the team and made a double substitution in the final quarter of the session bringing in Jaison Vaz and Kapil Hoble replacing Latesh and Desmon. Within a minute after coming in Kapil showed his calibre as he quickly sent two back-to-back crosses from the right flank but first Yogesh Kadam saw his flick shot hit the bottom right and came back into the play and later Beevan failed to connect from 6-yards.
On crossing over, Dempo came out stronger in the second session and made swift attacks on the opponents but poor finishing restricted the Golden Eagles from equalising. In one of these, Jaison found unmarked Yogesh in the box with a short cross but the midfielder failed to put power in his header as it was easily collected by Vasco keeper Suresh Lamani.
Dempo attackers kept on penetrating the Vasco’s last line and finally found the leveller in the 58th minutes. In the event, Vasco’s Treyson brought down Beevan just outside the box and referee Sunil Nanodkar quickly awarded the free-kick to the Golden Eagles. Mario Mascarenhas brilliantly curled the same into the goal and made it all square for Dempo.
However, just ten minutes later, Vasco once again restored the parity when Minesh excellently headed in Micky’s powerful free-kick from the distance making it 2-1 for the Port Towners.
When it was looking like the away team will take away the full three points, Beevan stretched to his limit to tap-in the ball home from close off Jaison’s cross from outside the box. 2-2.
The drama did not end here as the added time witnessed one more goal from the Panjim side. Treyson was once again at the fault to make a foul on Jaison in the box to give away the spot kick. Beevan easily sent the Vasco keeper Suresh the wrong way to rescue all three points for the Golden Eagles.
