In-form Salgaocar thrash Panjim Footballers to finish third in GPL

Brian Mascarenhas played an important role in Greens victory with two assists and a goal.

Salgaocar FC registered hammering 5-2 win over Panjim Footballers in their last Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With this win, the Greens finished at the 3rd position with 44 points, while Panjim finished at the 9th position with just 19 points.

 Salgaocar who had lost to FC Goa in the last match after winning nine straight matches had five changes as their coach Norbert Gonsalves named goalkeeper Nora Fernandes, Clencio Pinto, Rosario Mendes, Saeesh Halarnkar and Brian Mascarenhas in the starting XI, whereas, Panjim coach Savio Vaz made only one change to his side which held FC Goa in the previous round match as Congo Alphonse Shako found his name in the playing XI.

Panjim were the first to come close to scoring in the early minutes of the match when their Egyptian midfielder Fady Riad found Snedden Rodrigues in the box with a fine cross but the striker’s header went wide.

After some probing attacks, Salgaocar finally opened their tally in the 18th minute when Brian was trying to find Clencio in the box but Panjim defender Schubert D’Costa in the process of clearing the danger slotted the ball into his own goal to put the opponents into the lead.

Clencio doubled their lead in the 25th minutes when he made no mistake to slot the ball home from close after Rosario’s long throw-in was nicely headed to him by Nigerian striker Joel Sunday to make it 2-0 for the Green Brigade.

Salgaocar further inflated their lead in the 40th minutes when Brian’s low cross was brilliantly finished in the net by Nigerian striker Sunday to make it 3-0.

After assisting in first two goals for the Greens, Brian finally added his name on the scoresheet in the 42nd minute when he made an individual run and chipped the ball above on-rushing Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh to put his side on the driver seat at the half-time.  

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Panjim reduced the margin in the 4th minute of the second session when Salgaocar defender Keita Boubacar brought down Snedden in the box to give away the penalty to the opponents where Egyptian Riad sent the Salgaocar keeper Nora the wrong way from the spot making it 4-1 for the Capital city side.

However, in the 55th minutes, Clencio restored their 4-goal lead when he brilliantly cut past two defenders in the box and shot past Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh from 6-yards to make it 5-1 for his side.

Panjim once again reduced the margin in the 81st minute when Snedden made an easy tap-in from close to Egyptian Riad’s through pass to make it 5-2 for his side.