Team Herald
MARGAO: Pilerne Sports Club moved into the semi-finals of the 43rd Bandodkar Memorial football tournament defeating Saligao United Club in a penalty shootout 6-5 in the quarter-final played at the MPT ground, Baina-Vasco, on Saturday.
At the end of regulation time, both the teams were locked in a 2-2 draw.
Pilerne Sports Club had the first look at the rival goal in the 14th minute as Paul Cardozo netted in off a pass by Canute De Souza.
In the 29th minute, Edwin Fernandes of Saligao United Club took a piercing shot which crashed into the back of the net of Pilerne SC after receiving a pass from Sachin Chopdekar.
With score coming to level terms, the teams went into an attacking mode in search of a lead.
In the 39th minute, Earl Sequeira of Saligao UC, dribbled the ball towards the Pilerne SC goal area and piercing the defence of Pilerne SC unleashed a power-packed shot which straight away landed into the rival goal to make it 2-1.
Crossing over, with a goal deficit, Pilerne Sports Club looked restless in the beginning and soon started attacking the rival citadel time and gain. In the 53rd minute, Bhavesh Candolkar, dribbled the ball all the way into the danger area of Saligao UC and took a curling shot to net in.
Saligao UC later made lot of attempts to get the much needed goal but failed as their strikers could not penetrate the Pilerne SC defence line. The evenly contested match was set for the decider via tie-breaker.
Siddharth Shirodkar, Anson D’Souza, Prashant Naik and Gaurish Shirodkar netted in, but Paulo Cardozo’s shot hit the cross bar of Pilerne SC.
For Saligao United Club, Sachin Chopdekar, Jayesh Chopdekar, Trevor Dais were on target while Clyde Vales and Latesh Mandrekar’s penalties were saved.
Man-of-the-Match was awarded to Errol Sequeira of Saligao United by T.T Shreedharan, legal advisor, Baina Sports Club.
