MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa beat Dempo SC 1-0 in the U-16 North Zone play-offs at Duler Stadium to set up the final clash with Salgaocar FC.
The second half goal from Stendly Fernandes secured the victory for the Flaming Oranje.
The match drowned into controversy early in the first half as Dempo side received two red cards in the space of three minutes. In the 14th minute, Nikhil Guraung surprisingly received a yellow card for time wasting before the play could resume and referee Ristesh Parsekar gave him marching orders by showing him his second yellow card. In the 17th minute, Arron Alvares of Dempo received a direct red for reasons unknown. After this incidence the Dempo side were clearly unhappy which resulted in a 22 minute delay. Once the game resumed everyone witnessed another unusual incident. The match referee Ritesh Parsekar was changed and his counterpart from the far end Valentine Fernandes took over as they both exchanged roles.
After the match resumed Sporting clearly had the two man advantage and dominated the match.
Crossing over, Sporting played better football. At about an hour mark Stendly send in a rasping shot from about 25 yards beating everyone into the back of the nets. Dempo tried their best to come back with Baggio giving the Sporting custodian Akshat some nervous moments. Towards the end Sporting came close to scoring on a handful of occasions but couldn’t capitalize.
