Team Herald
MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa secured a narrow 1-0 win over Dempo Sports Club to go on top of the Goa Professional League table, match organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, here on Thursday.
Nigerian striker Abiola Afuwape scored the all-important goal in the 63rd minute.
Dempo coach Samir Naik chose to go with the same squad which defeated Salgaocar FC in the last match, whereas, Sporting gaffer Mateus Costa made three changes to his side as Glan Martins replaced injured Cajetan Fernandes, while suspended Girish Naik made way for U-20 Brandon Gomes. Alesh Sawant was the other change in the squad.
Sporting started the match on an attacking note as they came with a series of attacks on the opponents where first, Marcus Mascarenhas and Victorino Fernandes headed wide off Alesh and Brandon’ s cross respectively, while they had the best chance in the 17th minute when Alsesh once again curled the ball from left to find Abiola Afuwape in the box but Nigerian striker saw his powerful header was brilliantly blocked by Dempo keeper Agnelo Gomes.
A few minutes later, Victorino made an individual effort from the halfway line, making a darting run with Dempo defender Mathew Gonsalves but his weak shot was easily collected by Dempo custodian.
In between these, Dempo also came close to scoring in the 20th minute as Beevan D’Mello’s fine cross from the right found Mario Mascarenhas in the box but his header missed the target narrowly.
Dempo started the second session with a quick attack from the right where Kapil Hoble made a fine cross in the box to find Beevan in the box but the forward was a bit late to reach the ball.
At the other end, Marcus combined well with Victorino in the box before drilling a powerful shot from close but Dempo defender Shallum Pires blocked it as the ball rolled to Quan Gomes but his shot also hit defender Mario before going out for a corner.
After some superb defending from Dempo’s last line, finally, they broke in the 63rd minute when Victorino dribbled past few defenders to enter the box and despite going for glory with just keeper to beat he sent an unselfish pass to Nigerian Abiola who put the ball in the net making it 1-0 for Sporting.
Down by a goal, Dempo coach Samir made two changes bringing in fresh legs Jaison Vaz and Joaquim Abranches replacing Beevan and Latesh Mandrekar.
However, Joaquim wasted golden opportunity to find the equaliser as first, he hit on the keeper Ozen Silva in the 68th minutes instead of put it in the net after getting hold of the long clearance from his teammate.
The last and the best opportunity for the Golden Eagles came in the 87th minutes when Joaquim made a dazzling first touch to control Nickson Castanha’s long ball but shot wide from inside the box with just keeper to beat.
