MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa registered a hard fought 1-0 win over Sesa Football Academy to enter the semi-finals, at Duler Stadium.
It was a self-goal by Sesa’s skipper Joston Pereira which sealed the match for Sporting in the 33rd minute of the first half.
Sporting who were missing their key players due to the Santosh Trophy ongoing training camp put up a strong display and had they converted the chances that came their way the score line would have been different.
In the ninth minute George D’Souza’s rasping 25-yard free-kick was well stopped by Sesa keeper Sapam Nongpoknganba and the ball rolled to Delton Colaco who surprisingly shot wide from a close range.
Sesa keeper Sapam was once again called into action when he confidently collected a Marcus Mascarenhas’ header before it could crash into the net from a well taken free-kick by George.
Sporting almost took the lead in the 33rd minute when Peter Carvalho’s well struck free-kick hit the goal post and came back into play and before anyone could pounce on the loose ball it hit Myran Pereira and went over the goal post.
Sporting got the goal from an unlikely source when Marcus Mascarenhas who took the resultant corner-kick saw skipper Joston Pereira’s header land into his own goal.
Changing ends, Sporting tried to consolidate their lead through Philip and Marcus but alert defending by Sesa’s Shoib Akhtar and Myran Pereira snuffed out the danger.
Sesa coach Charles Dias in search of the equaliser made two positive changes bringing in Kunal Salgaonkar upfront and Stephen Colaco in the midfield to bolster the attack but could not find the equaliser.
