MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa defeated Salgaocar Football Club 2-1 in the reverse fixture of the cross-town derby in the Goa Professional League, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, here on Tuesday.
With this win, Sporting strengthen their top position with 27 points from 11 matches, while Salgaocar had 11 points from nine matches.
Sporting boss Mateus Costa made five changes to his side which defeated Goan FC in the last match as keeper Melroy Fernandes, Marcus Mascarenhas, Cajetan Fernandes and Nigerian defender Sodiq Ibrahim made the comeback, along with new face U-20 Myron Fernandes who made the first start for the Flaming Oranje.
Whereas, Salgaocar who had edged out the same opponent in their last match, had only one change to their side as defender Joaquim Carvalho replaced Sourabh Patil in the starting XI.
Sporting should have taken the lead in the very 2nd minute of the match when their U-20 midfielder Myron brilliantly cut-past two defenders on his run and went for the glory from the top of the box but rival keeper S Rajini Kumar pushed it for safety.
However, in the 6th minute, keeper Rajni was completely helpless when Sporting Nigerian striker Abiola Afuwape dribbled past two defenders to enter the box and calmly finished at the far-post making it 1-0 for the Flaming Oranje.
Just after the goal, Sporting tried to dominate the match with better attacking index but it was Salgaocar who stunned the host with an equalising goal in the 21st minute as Nigerian strike force Joel Sunday made no mistake from close after Sporting keeper blocked Mackroy Peixote in a one-on-one situation, as the ball later rolled to the Nigerian striker who tapped the ball home to make it all square for his side.
The later part of the session witnessed end-to-end play but both the teams failed in the final third as both the teams were tied 1-1 at the lemon break.
After some drub football in the first 20 minutes of the second session, the match took a dramatic turn in the 66th minute when Marcus’ shot was cleared off the goal-line by Salgaocar defender Joaquim but in the same process another defender handled the ball to give away the penalty kick to the Flaming Oranje, where Cajetan Fernandes sent the keeper wrong way to restore the lead.
A few minutes later, they had another chance when Victorino Fernandes had just keeper to beat but keeper Rajini came up with a superb block, the ball later rolled to Abiola whose header missed the target narrowly.
At the other end, Salgaocar also came close to finding the equaliser when Sunday cut past a defender and tried his luck from just inside the box only to see it get blocked by keeper Melroy.
In the dying minutes of the match, Sporting midfielder Cajetan saw his curling free-kick rebound off crossbar, while in the added time Salgaocar were denied a penalty when Sunday’s goal-bound shot hit the rival defender Joseph’s hand in the box but referee Parmanand Mandrekar overlooked the situation as Sporting continued their unbeaten run in the league with a hard fought 2-1 win.
