Gokulam Kerala hammer SESA FA, keeps their hopes alive of semis spot

Gokulam coach Fernando Santiago believes that AWES Cup is very competitive and the best option for Indian Football for a preseason.

Gokulam Kerala FC kept their hopes alive with an easy 4-1 win over Sesa Football Academy in the AWES Cup 2018 match played at Tilak Maidan, Vasco, earlier today.

Academy coach Ajay Acharya made only one change to his side following a defeat at the hands of ONGC FC in the last match as Janad P made the start, whereas Mudde Musa, Jishnu Balakrishna and Mohammed Rashid were the three changes in the Kerala side.

Gokulam had an early chance in the match when Bijesh Balan curled the corner to striker Musa in the box but the Ugandan striker saw his header sailed over the crossbar.

Next, 10 minutes witnessed Academy buy coming with a series of attacks but most of it were cut down by the linesman due to offside. However, in the 16th minutes, Gokulam defender Fabricio Ortiz brought down Sesa striker Kunal Salgaokar just outside the box, where, Joston Pereira brilliantly finished the ball home from the free-kick.

Gokulam found the equaliser in the 27th minutes when Sesa keeper Sapam N. made a mistake to clear Musa’s through pass to onrushing Suhair VP, who latter slotted the ball in the empty goal to make it all square for the Kerala side.

However, in the last minute of the first half, Academy custodian Sapam came with a breath-taking save to push the Suhair’s goalbound shot for a corner.

Gokulam had a great chance to surge ahead at the start of the second session when Abhishek Das found substitute Rajesh S. in the box but the striker shot over the crossbar.  The next few minutes witnessed two excellent saves from Sesa Custodian as first Sapam pushed Nasar PA’s shot for a corner, while, three minutes later, he came with another excellent save as this time Suhairs goalbound shot from inside the box was nicely fisted over the crossbar by Sapam.

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Academy boys also had an opportunity to take the lead in the 68th minutes when Vishnu Gosavi tried his luck from the distance but his long ranger went inches wide with rival keeper completely out of position.

Gokulam finally took the lead in the 73rd minute when Nasar’s long-ranger crashed into the back of the net to make it 2-1. Peped-up by the goal, Nasar scored another for his team in the very next minute, as this time he just made an easy tap-in to Deepak Kumar’s perfect low cross to make it 3-1 for his side.

With just five minutes remaining on the match clock, substitute Rajesh made it 4-1 for the Gokulam with a sparkling shot from inside the box which gave no chance to Sesa keeper Sapam from close.

Gokulam coach Fernando Santiago was happy with the result as said “We played good football today. My team is getting better day by day. I know we need to improve a lot and we are working on the same every day.”