Team Herald
MAPUSA: Football Club Bardez went down fighting as FC Pune City registered a hard fought 1-0 win over the Goan outfit in the 1st AWES Cup, organised by Goa Football Association (GFA) and Dempo Sports Club Juniors played at Duler Stadium, here on Monday.
With this win, Pune City made it to the semi-final and will face Dempo on September 14.
The only goal of the match was scored by the Pune midfielder Gani Ahammed Nigam in the 23rd minute.
Before the start of the match, with just a draw enough, Pune City were in a better position with superior goal difference to Bardez and were favourites to go through to the semi-finals due to their 4-0 win over Dempo Juniors, while Bardez had won their last match 3-0 against the Juniors and were in a must win situation.
Bardez Coach Armando Colaco made three changes to his side as keeper Aliston Fernandes, Lalbabu Matho and Floyd Fernandes found a place in the starting XI. Whereas, Pune Coach Anshul katuyar named unchanged playing XI for the match.
Bardez started the match on attacking note and came close to scoring in the first minute when Jessel Carneiro sent a perfect through ball to Floyd who covered some ground before blasting it at the goal, but his shot hit the crossbar and came back into the play.
Minutes later, Jessel once again sent a through ball in the box to Kirtikesh Gadekar but Pune keeper Bilal Khan made no mistake to collect the same in time.
Pune also had a chance to take the lead but Pawan Kumar header missed the target by few inches, off Buanthanglun Samte’s corner.
In the next minute, another chance went abegging for Pune side as free-man Gaurav Bora headed over the crossbar after he was fed by Ashique kurniyan with a fantastic free-kick from the left.
Bardez once again tried to dominate with the ball as they came up with two good attacks on the opponents but first, Jessel’s free-kick slipped of the keeper Bilal’s hands but landed outside for a corner. Later, Jessel once again sent a cross at the far post but Shubham Desai failed to connect his header from in front of the empty goal.
At the other end, Nigam put Pune City ahead in the 23rd minute. The striker clinically headed in from close off Ashique’s perfect cross from the left flank, 1-0.
Down by a goal, Bardez quickly regrouped and came out all attacking but failed to beat the shot stopper, Bilal.
In one of the best chance, Bilal made an excellent save to stop Kirtikesh’s powerful shot from the edge of the box.
Bardez Coach Armando replaced left back Lenstan Afonso with an experienced wing back Denzil Franco at the half time, hoping quick attacks from his left side.
Bardez started the second half with an impressive play from both the wings as they came close to scoring within the first five minutes but like the previous attacks, this time also Jessel saw his fine cross pushed away for a corner by Pune keeper Bilal.
A few minutes later, Kirtikesh missed the sitter from the 6-yards as the Bardez lad failed to connect to Jessel’s deadly cross in the box.
Pune also had a few chances to double their lead but first, Lalbabu made a diving effort to clear Pawan’s through ball to unmarked Nigam in the box.
Minutes later, Pawan’s powerful header rebounded off the crossbar, off Buanthanglun’s corner.
In the 88th minutes, Pune skipper Ashique was sent off after his second booking for elbowing Bardez’s Dadapeer Patil.
Bardez tried hard to get back into the match but the luck did not favour the local favourite as even after a dominant play in both the halves they could not manage to find the net as the match ended in Pune’s favour, helping them to make it to the final four.
