TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Sesa Football Academy booked their place in the final of GFA Under-16 play-off after they fought tooth and nail to register a 6-5 win via the sudden-death over Betalbatim Sporting Club at SAG ground, Assolna, Monday. There was no score at full time.
The first half turned out to be a listless exercise as both the sides preferred to hold back their offensive intent.
After resumption, Sesa took the initiative and pushed forward playing attacking football. The Sesa attacking line consisting of Latesh Mandrekar, Liston Fernandes and Leander D’Costa set up waves of attacks and kept the rival defenders and goalkeeper busy.
With Betalbatim also deciding to be more expressive in the second half, the action picked up with greater frequency of attacks on either end.
Betalbatim nearly broke the deadlock soon after resumption when striker Mathew Colaco outwitted a couple of defenders but his rasping shot kissed the crossbar much to the dismay of the Betalbatim bench. Betalbatim have to be thankful to goalkeeper Flezburn D’Souza who played his heart out and kept his slate clean.
Sesa looked to score through Latesh Mandrekar from close range but Flezburn’s fine work denied him.
Betalbatim came close to scoring but Sesa goalkeeper Santosh Pujar collected the free-kick taken by Moses D’Sa.
In the last 15 minutes, Sesa went all out but Moses D’Sa effected a goal-line save after his goalkeeper was beaten by Biswajeet Rajput’s header via the flag-kick taken by Liston Fernandes.
In the penalty shootout, Sesa scored through Liston Fernandes, Marc D’Cruz, Latesh Mandrekar, Biswajeet Rajput and Assumption Soares while Josley Dias, Moses D’Sa, Klusner Pereira, Mahesh Kumar and Flezburn D’Souza found the mark for Betalbatim. As the tie-breaker also failed to resolve the deadlock, the sudden death was resorted to. In the sudden death, Avinash Rathod was successful for Sesa while Jayesh Dias failed for Betalbatim.
Meanwhile, Dempo SC edged past Salgaocar FC 5-4 via the tie-breaker at Sangolda ground.
