DULER: Nigerian Alphonse Shako scored in the added time as Panjim Footballers held Dempo Sports Club to an entertaining 2-2 draw in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Thursday.
Irish midfielder Fady Riad scored a debut goal as Panjim surged ahead in the 45th minutes while Joaquim scored the brace for Dempo SC.
Dempo dropped two important points as they stand second with 28 points from 13 matches, while Panjim has 10 points from 12 matches.
Panjim were in poor form as they had lost their last two matches to Sporting Clube de Goa and Calangute Association while Dempo were back in the form after going down to FC Goa as they had defeated Salgaocar FC in their previous round match.
Dempo started without four regular players, Naveen Mendes, Nestor Dias, Beevan D’Mello and Yogesh Kadam as Mario Mascarenhas, Gaurish Naik, Joaquim Abranches and Desmon Pereira made into the Samir Naik’s starting XI. Whereas, Panjim coach Savio Vaz introduced newly signed Irish midfielder Fady Riad in the playing XI.
Though Dempo dominated the first 20 minutes, they never came close to scoring. However, in the 20th minutes, Dempo got the golden opportunity to surge ahead when Joaquim dangerously moved inside the box and sent a grounder to Latesh Mandrekar in front of the empty goal but the striker could not reach to the ball.
At the other end, Panjim forward set up Irish midfielder Fady with just keeper to beat but the latter shot wide from close.
A few minutes later, Panjim came with the swift move when their striker Akeraj Martins found Fady inside the box but the Irish midfielder shot on the Dempo keeper Agnelo Gomes instead of directing in the goal.
After two easy chances, Irish finally scored in the 45th minutes when he snatched the ball from Dempo defender Shallum Pires, cut past a goalkeeper in his run and calmly finished the ball in the back of the nylons to take Panjim into the lead.
However, it was just a span of two minutes when Dempo found the equaliser through Joaquim who made no mistake to beat the keeper from the spot after Panjim defender Clive Miranda handled the ball inside the box to give away the penalty kick for the rivals.
Panjim had the best chance to once again go into the lead in the second half when Akeraj was just kick away from scoring but Dempo experienced defender Mathew Gonsalves brilliantly blocked him to keep his side safe.
A few minutes later, Akeraj once again came with a shot from outside the box but his curling strike just missed the target narrowly. A very next minutes, the striker was denied by Dempo keeper Agnelo with a brave save.
At the other end, Dempo took the lead in the 69th minutes when substitute Suraj Hadkonkar nicely curled the ball to Joaquim in the box whose diving header found the net to make it 2-1 for the Golden Eagles.in the dying minutes of the match, Joaquim had a chance to complete his hat-trick when Suraj once again set up the forward with a beautiful ball but his over ambitious shot went wide.
When it was looking like Dempo will take all three points home, Nigerian Alphonse Shako scored in the added time to make it all square for his side after Fady’s curling free-kick hit the crossbar and came into play, where Shako blasted in from close to grab at least a point from this match.
A very next minutes, Dempo had a chance to restore their lead when Dempo winger found himself with just keeper to beat but his shot from close was paired for a corner by Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh.
