TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: After initially going ahead through a Pandhari Chopdekar strike, Sporting Clube de Goa Juniors were held to a 1-1 draw by United Sikkim in AIIF’s I-League U-20 at Jamshedpur, Tuesday. Sporting led 1-0 at the interval.
Sporting played a free flowing game enjoying good ball possession, while United Sikkim were direct in their approach.
It took just 13 minutes for Sporting to take the lead after Xaiver Dias planted a precise through ball for Pandhari who stabbed the ball home.
During the course of the second session Pandhari, Binatone Singh and Lesten Martins were replaced by Pritam Singh, Jesus Estrocio and Nikhil Naik respectively for the Goan side.
Sporting captain Mario Lobo nearly doubled the lead, but his 30-yard free kick clipped the crossbar.
In the final five minutes, Sikkim managed to take advantage of an error in the Sporting defence and equalised through L S Bhutia.
In the closing stages, Pritam came close to snatching victory, but an alert Sikkim custodian snuffed out the danger.
Sikkim had three players booked while, Mario was the only player booked for the Flaming Oranje Juniors.
