TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Sai Avtar, Anjuna piped Milagres Sports Club 6-4 via the tie-breaker to move into the final of 7th Reira Trophy football organized by Saligao Sporting Club at Saligao ground, Monday. The score was 2-2 at full time.
Flavio Lopes SHAOLIN SOCCER: Milagres’ Sai Avtar’s Saprem in the semi-finals of 7th Reira Trophy football organized by Saligao Sporting Club at Saligao ground, Monday. |
Sai Avtar started off on an attacking note with Rupesh sending in a dangerous cross to Julius inside the box but Milagres goalkeeper Manuel made a timely collection to deny the former in the fourth minute.
Subsequently, Sai Avtar’s Sameer came close to opening the scoring but his two long-rangers sailed inches over in the 12th and 15th minutes respectively.
Sai Avtar enjoyed the lion’s share of ball possession and surged ahead in the 21st minute after Shekar’s attempted cross dipped into the rival goal beating Manuel.
Stung by the setback, Milagres equalized against the run of play through striker
Milagres made the most out of the given opportunities as
After resumption, Sai Avtar tried hard to crawl back into the game but Saprem’s efforts in the 36th and 44th minutes went wide. MiIagres defenders did a fine job to restrain the rival strikers in the final quarter but conceded a needless free-kick in the dying minutes that proved costly. Sai Avtar’s Abhijit’s free-kick created confusion in the Milagres citadel that allowed Sai Avtar’s Dryan to sneak in for an easy tap in to level the scores and force a penalty shoot-out.
In the tie-breaker, Saprem, Shekar, Abhijit and Akshay converted for Sai Avtar while only Anup and Noel scored for Milagres.
Sai Avtar will now face Penha de Franca in the final on Saturday.
