MAPUSA: Clifton Fernandes scored in the added time to help Panjim Footballers to hold defending champions Salgaocar Football Club to a high scoring 3-3 draw in the opening match of the Goa Professional League organized by GFA, played at Duler stadium here on Sunday.
Panjim had a poor pre-season as they had lost against Sporting Clube de Goa and Calangute Association, however, managed to come out victorious against Corps of Signals in their last friendly match. At the other hand, Salgaocar enjoyed their pre-season at their best as the Green Brigade were unbeaten in the entire pre-season.
Panjim started with their two new signings as Mahesh Kumar and Ruflon Fernandes were named in the starting XI by coach Savio Vaz. While Salgaocar coach Norberto Gonsalves also made few changes to his side from the last match against Gokulam FC in the semi-finals as Umesh Harijan, Devendra Murgaonkar and U20 Ribhav Sardessai were back in the playing XI for the Greens.
It was a great start for the promoted side Panjim Footballers against the defending champions as they had almost scored in the 5th minute but Salgaocar keeper Abijit Das acrobatically pushed away U20 Chandan Gawas’s placement from the close.
However, three minutes later, Panjim’s Ruflon smashed the ball into the back of the net from the close after getting hold of the loose ball in the box and astonished the former titleholder.
The Green Brigade recovered from early goal conceding and took just six more minutes to equalise. In the event, Gilbert Oliveira found Harmanjot Singh with a perfect corner from the left, who superbly headed in from close to make it all square for his side.
Pumped-up by the equalising goal, Salgaocar scored two more goals in the next 10 minutes and showed the class of champions. First, Gilbert easily sent the Panjim keeper Gurupreet Singh the wrong way from the spot to make it 2-1 for his side after referee Pandurang Korgaonkar awarded them the penalty kick as Panjim’s Kunal Kundalkar handled the ball inside the box.
While in the 25th minutes, Gilbert once again came up with a brilliant corner from the same side but this time U20 Devendra Murgaonkar sent the ball in the net from point-blank range to make it 3-1.
On changing over, Panjim were undoubtingly the better side as they almost dominated the session with better possession over the ball and also in attacking index. However, their most of the moves failed in the final third.
Whereas Salgaocar also had a chance to further increase their tally when Brian Mascarenhas sent a lofted pass to Harmanjot in the box but Panjim shot stopper Sherwin brilliantly blocked his powerful shot at the cost of a corner.
With just a few minutes left on the match clock, Panjim coach Savio brought in Sachindanand Satelkar to sharpen them in the attack and it paid within next two minutes as the winger’s through ball to Lynson Vas was handled by Salgaocar Rosario Mendes in the box giving away the spot kick to opponents where Panjim’s Harshad Naik made no mistake to reduce the margin for his side.
Panjim side tried hard in the last few minutes to find the leveller and finally, it paid off in the added time when Defender Leny Pereira’s clearance rolled to Clifton Fernandes outside the box whose powerful grounder finished into the far corner making it 3-3 and confirming Panjim’s first point in the Goa Pro League.
