Velsao blank Calangute Association in Goa Pro League

Manjunath Rathod scored a brace for the visitors.

Velsao Sports and Cultural Club eased past Calangute Association by a comfortable 3-0 margin in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium on Monday afternoon. Manjunath Rathod scored a brace, while U-20 Flan Gomes scored the third goal for the South Goan side.

Calangute had registered a massive 4-1 win over Bardez FC in the last match, whereas, Velsao had suffered a narrow defeat against Vasco SC in the previous round match.

Velsao started the match on an attacking note and were dominant from the start of the match. However, it took 21 minutes for them to create their first potent chance of the match as their U-20 forward Jesloy Monix made a low cross to Laiwang Bohham in the box but the striker failed to put power in his shot as Calangute keeper made a comfortable collection of the ball.

Laiwang wasted another opportunity in the 25th minutes as this time Michael Silva set up him in the box with a long freekick but the forward’s header went over the crossbar. Three minutes later, Velsao striker Jesloy cut past a defender and entered the box but his powerful strike was timely blocked by Calangute defender Gaurav Vaigankar.

At the other end, Calangute came with their first chance of the match at the half-hour mark as U-20 winger Akash Sanadi found Abdoul Fall with a fine cross from the right flank but the forward headed wide from inside the box.

The South Goan club almost surged ahead in the 39th minutes when Jesloy smartly flicked the ball towards the goal off Flan Gomes perfect corner but Calangute midfielder Marc D’Cruz rescued his side with a goal-line clearance.

However, in the 43rd minute, Velsao broke the deadlock when a curling cross from Leny Fernandes was brilliantly headed in by Manjunath Rathod as the South Goan side entered the dressing room with a slender lead at the halftime.  

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Velsao had an early chance in the second session to double their lead as Joseph Pereira’s corner headed to Flan by Laiwang from inside the box but the U-20 winger’s header from the goalmouth went over the crossbar.

Just after the hour mark, Velsao doubled their lead as Remedios Vaz made a through pass to Manjunath in the box who cut past a defender and cut back it to Laiwang, whose shot was brilliantly blocked by Calangute keeper Sanij Bugde but he could not stop unmarked Flan from taping the free ball in the back of the net.

They had a chance to further inflate their lead in the 72nd minute when Charles Miranda tried his luck from the top of the box but Calangute keeper Sanij paired it for a corner. From the resulting corner, Flan found Joseph in the box but the skipper saw his tap was blocked for safety by Calangute custodian.

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 However, The South Goan side managed to make it 3-0 within next three minutes as this time Manjunath’s low cross from inside the box deflected off Calangute defender Jayganesh Goltekar and finished in his own goal as Velsao confirmed all three points from the away match.    

With these three points, Velsao has 14 points from 15 matches and placed 8th in the table, while, the Beachside are placed at the 11th position with just 11 points from the same number of matches.