MAPUSA: Calangute Association came up from the two-goal deficit to hold Goan Football Club to a 2-2 draw in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, here on Saturday.
Goans who were in the fantastic form after defeating Dempo SC and FC Bardez in the last two matches had made few changes to their side as Veegan Ferrao, Rinjoy Fernandes Krishna Pandit and Jason Barbosa found their names in Clifford Miranda’s XI.
Whereas Calangute coach Alex Alvares also made two changes bringing in U-20 keeper Selwyn D’Souza to replace injured keeper Jason D’Mello, while he also brought back Amar Halankar in the starting XI.
Goans who started without four of the regular players, Liston Colaco, Leander D’Cunha, Jonathan Cardozo and Yasir Mohammad made a great start as they took just three minutes to open their account through Aaren.
Veegan found the striker with a perfect long ball who smartly beat the offside trap before finishing the ball in the net from the edge of the box to make it 1-0 for his side.
Energized by an early goal, Goans added another to their tally in the 13th minute when Vegan stylishly headed in off Krishna’s perfect cross from the right.
The next 15 minutes belonged to the Beach side as in the 22nd minute, Calangute defender Bonny made a dangerous run in the box cutting past a defender and shot past keeper Mohammad Nawaz to make it 1-2 for Calangute.
Whereas, eight minutes later, Calangute came up with an equaliser when Nigerian Kouame stunned the Goan keeper Nawaz with a curling free-kick from just outside the box which entered the net making it all square for his side.
However, in the second session both the teams failed to break the deadlock as both the defence line
made a brilliant job clearing every danger to keep their side safe.
In few of these, Calangute had an opportunity in the 54th minute when their star striker Omkar More sent a low cross in the box where Goan defender Lalnunsamia fumbled with the ball but keeper Nawaz quickly collected the same before Calangute midfielder Joston Pereira could do any damage.
At the other end, Hayden’s 35 yard free-kick was nicely fisted over the crossbar by Calangute keeper Selwyn, while in the very next minutes he once again came up with a breathtaking save when he made diving efforts to deny Meldon D’Silva’s header off Jason’s corner.
The best and the last chance for the Goans came in the added time when Krishna Pandin set up Aaren in the box whose shot was entering the goal after deflecting keeper Nawaz but Bresal Viegas came to rescue his side with a goal-line clearance.
