Goa Pro League: Sesa hold Calangute Association

The Beachside club dropped two important points in the title race.

Sesa Football Academy managed to hold Calangute Association to a goalless draw in the Goa Pro League match played at Duler Stadium on Tuesday.

Calangute coach Valentine Ezeugo chose to go with the same side which stunned Dempo SC in the last match with a 2-1 win over them. Whereas, Omkar Arondekar was back in the lineup for the Academy Boys after he missed out in the previous match, where they earned a point against Sporting Clube de Goa following a 1-1 draw.

It was Calangute who were first to look at the goal in the first minute. Nickson Castanha sent a dangerous cross from distance, but Sesa custodian Sapam Singh came off his line to punch it away. However, the ball rolled to Sidharth Kudaikar who failed to connect, while his teammate Siddhant Shirodkar also could not capitalize with an empty goal in front of him.

Sesa also came close to taking the lead in the 13th minute. Omkar made a fine cross in the box, but Calangute keeper Paramveer Singh nicely parried it. The ball fell to well-positioned Shajam P who shot wide from inside the six-yard-box. A few minutes later, Sesa once again came close to scoring. Shajam made a lobbed pass to Myron Borges, who saw the rival keeper out of position and went for glory from distance only to see it miss by a whisker.

The Academy Boys wasted another great opportunity to take the lead in the 41st minute. Omkar found Domnic Soares in the box with a curler, but Calangute custodian Paramveer brilliantly blocked him. The ball rolled to Rizbon Fernandes in the box, but the lad failed to keep his shot on target.

At the other end, Sesa keeper Sapam came up with two brilliant saves in the dying minutes of the half. First, he stretched to his limit to push Siddhant’s goalbound strike for a corner. A few minutes later, he produced an acrobatic effort to block Nickson’s goalbound free-kick.  

On changing ends, it was the Beachside who once again came up with a swift attack in the 47th minute. Domnic Fernandes made a short pass to substitute Rohan Kamble, who covered some ground before firing a powerful strike from distance, but unfortunately his strike rebounded off the crossbar. They had another great opportunity in the 52nd minute. Ivorian forward Kouame Junior made a short pass to Chaitan Dabholkar who nicely curled it to Siddhant in front of goal, but the forward shot over crossbar with just the keeper to beat.

Sesa also had a chance to seal the match in the 76th minute. Substitute forward Kunal Salgaonkar nicely cut past few opponents and tried his luck from the edge of the box, but Calangute keeper Paramveer made a diving save to keep his side safe.

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