Team Herald
MAPUSA: Salgaocar Football Club came from two-goal down deficit to hold Guardian Angel Sports Club to a thrilling 2-2 draw in the Goa Professional League match, organized by Goa Football Association, played under floodlights at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Saturday.
However, this draw could not help them to rise from the bottom of the league as they stand 12th with just five points from six matches, while Guardian Angel have 10 points from the same number of outings.
Guardian Angel coach Riston Rodrigues made only one change to his side which defeated Goan FC in the last match as U-20 Lincon Colaco replaced injured Myron Borges. On the other hand, Salgaocar who downed Calangute Association in the last match to register their first win of the season made three changes bringing in Gilbert Oliveira, Devendra Murgaonkar and Lalit Tarilal in the starting XI.
It could have been a dream start to the match for Salgaocar as their striker Joel Sunday had the best chance to open their account in the 4th minutes but the Nigerian striker shot wide from close after receiving a low cross from Devendra.
At the other end, Guardian Angel punished them for wasting an easy chance as they surged ahead in the 11th minutes when Salgaocar defender Leny Pereira deflected Clifton Dias’ long-distance free-kick and saw it going in the goal. However, a minute after the goal, Angels suffered a major blow in the attacking as their foreign striker Abel Hammond was injured and was replaced by Perryson Rebello.
In the 19th minute, Salgaocar had an opportunity to level the terms when Angel defender Nicolau Colaco handled the ball just outside the box but Sunday failed to keep his shot on target as the ball missed the target by few inches. .
Post resumption, Salgaocar came with numerous attacks in the first 15 minutes of the second session but it was Angels who scored the second goal of the match in the 60th minutes when Anthony Barbosa made no mistake to shot past Salgaocar keeper Abijit Das after he failed to clear the Joval Fernandes first shot as the Curchorem side led by two goals with just 30 minutes to go.
However, Salgaocar took just six more minutes to reduce the margin as Mackroy Peixote cut past a defender to enter the box and beat Angel Custodian from inside the box with a neat shot to make it 1-2 for the Green Brigade.
The last quarter of the match witnessed both the teams playing with 10 men as Referee Deepraj Sangelkar shown the direct red card to Salgaocar’s Clencio and Angels’ Clifton following their fight on the pitch.
When it was looking like, the Curchorem side will take all three points home; Salgaocar’s Nigerian strike force Sunday once again came to rescue his side as he smartly headed in from point-blank range, off substitute Agnelo Colaco’s well-taken corner.
