BENAULIM: Salgaocar Veterans had to dig deep before prevailing over Marc Caterers Nuvem 6-5 via the tie-breaker to enter the final of the 18th V M Salgaocar Memorial Veterans Soccer tournament organised by Prime Sports Club, at St John the Baptist Ground, Dando-Benaulim, on Sunday.
Marc Caterers Nuvem were the dominating side in the first session with their midfielders Edith Fernandes, Bobby Crasto and Mario Rebello in control of the proceedings.
Salgaocar were mostly on the back foot with Baptist D’Mello, Anthony Chima and Roque Carneiro defending overtime.
After the change of ends, Salgaocar broke the defensive shackles and took the game to their opponents with striker Prem Dias and Anthony Pereira pressurizing the rival defence.
Nuvem goalkeeper Anand Adkonkar made a terrific save in the 42ndminute by pushing out a Prem Dias right footer.
At the other end, Salgaocar were lucky as goalkeeper Bharat Morje collected a shot from Marcus Carvalho which crashed on to the cross piece and fell into the hands of Morje.
As there was no goals in regulation time, the tie-breaker was applied in which Anthony Pereira, Xavier Colaco, Roque Carneiro, Alfred Fernandes, Robert Fernandes and Shekhar Shirodkar made no mistakes for Salgaocar Veterans. Nana Borkar, Bobby Crasto, Mithun Carvalho, Marcus Carvalho and Anand Adkonkar found the mark for Nuvem.
Salgaocar Veterans will now clash with Bardez Veterans in the final September 23.
