Goa Police Cup 2019: Sporting Goa pip Sesa Football Academy to book semi-final berth

The Flaming Orange will now face Churchill Brothers in the last four of the tournament.  

Sporting Clube de Goa made it to the semi-finals of the Goa Police Cup, as they edged past Sesa Football Academy by a solitary goal in the last eight match played at the Duler Stadium on Sunday.

SESA were without their skipper Caitano Viegas who was out with suspension due to a direct red card in the last match against Calangute Association, as Sajam P. replaced him in midfield. On the other hand, the defending champions were without their first-choice keeper Melroy Fernandes, who is currently with the state's Santosh Trophy team and Akshat Hadkonkar replaced him under the crossbar. Other players such as Joseph Clemente, Clive Miranda and Standley Fernandes also missed the match due to state duty.

Sporting should have taken an early lead when George D’Souza fed Alton Vaz in the box with a perfect freekick, however, he headed the ball wide. In the next minute, Brandon came up with a long cross from the right flank, but the onrushing Sachidanand Satelkar failed to receive it as the ball went out for a goal kick.

Five minutes later, George produced another breathtaking free-kick from 25-yards, which was brilliantly blocked by Sesa keeper Sapam. George delivered another masterpiece in the next minute to forward Marcus Mascarenhas in the box, but his goalbound header was acrobatically saved by Academy keeper Sapam.

Sporting continued to dominate their rivals with numerous attacks from both flanks and won a free-kick just outside the box. Veteran Peter Carvalho tried his luck, however, the ball rebounded off the post and hit Sesa defender Myran Pereira before going out for a corner.

Sporting finally broke the deadlock in the next minute from the corner, as Sesa skipper Joston Pereira headed in an own goal. Sesa tried to build pressure on the defending champions in the second half, but failed to break Sporting’ defence. Sporting also failed to produce better play in the rest of the game.

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Sporting will now play Churchill Brothers in the semi-final, who defeated Salgoacar FC 2-1 in the other quarterfinal match played at Fatorda Artificial Turf.

In the second last four clash, FC Goa will face Dempo SC, as the ISL outfit's development side defeated Guardian Angel 1-0. Dempo registered a hard-fought solitary goal win over Corps of Signals in their respective quarterfinal match.