Goa Pro League: Vasco blank Guardian Angel to register third win

Anil Gaonkar shone with a brace.

Vasco Sports Club registered an easy 2-0 win over Guardian Angel Sports Club in the Goa Pro League match played at Duler Stadium on Sunday. Anil Gaonkar opened the tally in the added minutes of the first half, while he completed his brace in the 68th minute to grab all three points from the match.

Both Guardian Angel and Vasco made changes to their teams for the game. Karan Shirodkar was the lone change in Vasco’s starting XI, as he made his debut for the Port Towners. Meanwhile, Angels coach Riston Rodrigues made three changes to his side, as Yunal Fernandes, Mevan Dias and Denvil Fernandes made the cut.

The Port Towners who were playing without their main strikers Joaquim Abranches and Suraj Mondal, had Anil Gaonkar upfront. The speedy attacker made a darting run from the halfway line and delivered a cut-back to the onrushing Denil Rebello in the box. The midfielder made a dummy and released it to the well-placed Desmon Gama in the box, but the winger failed to put power in his shot, as Angels keeper Pratheesh Veettil made an easy collection.

Anil had an opportunity to put Vasco into the lead in the 13th minute. He was fed by Francisco Fernandes with a through pass. The forward easily cut past a defender to enter the box and fired a shot on goal, but once again keeper Veettil easily collected the weak shot.

Vasco suffered a blow in the early minutes, as winger Savlon Fernandes was injured and replaced by Hafiz Khan just after the half hour mark. Meanwhile, they suffered another serious injury in the 40th minute, as centre-back Neville Albuquerque made way for Alson Fernandes.

Vasco came up with another swift attack in the 42nd minute. Denil tried to find Desmon in the box with a long through pass, but Guardian Angel keeper Veettil came out of the box to clear the danger. At the other end, the Curchorem side came produced their first attack of the match in the 44th minute. Beneston Barretto curled the ball to Mevan in the box, but the unmarked forward shot wide.

They were once again denied in added-time. Francisco’s cross was headed by Desmon only to see it rebound off the crossbar. However, in the very next minute, Anil put the Port Towners into the lead, when he nicely headed in off Sanwil’s fine cross.

Down by a goal, Angels came out stronger in the second half. Gilbert Oliveira made a run before curling it to Basanta Singh in the box, but Vasco defender Kuldeep Kumar cleared the danger on time. This was the only time the Angles came close to scoring in the half, as the rest of the session belonged to the Port Towners.

Vasco took some time to settle down in the second half and came up with a series of attacks on the rivals. In one of them, Denil found Anil from a set-piece, but his header was brilliantly cleared off the line by defender James Fernandes.

However, Anil scored his second and doubled the lead for his side in the 68th minute. Denil’s fine cross from outside the box was smartly headed in by the forward to make it 2-0 for the Port Towners.

At the other end, Vasco custodian Sanju came up with a diving save to deny Gilbert’s goalbound free-kick, Also, Anil had a chance to complete his hat-trick in added-time. He was setup by substitute Hafiz with just the keeper to beat, but the lad’s strike missed the target by a hairline.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Twitter, Instagram and join our community on Telegram.