Salgaocar beat Vasco in the Portside Derby in GPL

Kamo Stephane Bayi scored the winner for the Greens…

Salgaocar FC edged past Vasco Sports Club as they registered a hard fought 1-0 victory in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today. In the last match played between these two sides, Salgaocar were the better team and scored five goals against their city rivals. While, Vasco were winless in four matches and continued their poor run in the league. Jaison Vaz and Kingslee Fernandes were back in the Vasco starting XI, while Vasco coach Eban Mesquita also gave a start to Jerson Pereira and Sudheesh Muthath. Salgaocar boss Norbert Gonsalves introduced Goalkeeper Naveen Kumar and midfielder James Fernandes in the starting XI for his side. Like in the last match, Salgaocar got a chance in the very 3rd minute but this time Kamo Stephane Bayi missed a sitter after receiving a low cross from Liston Colaco. One more chance came Salgaocar’s way but Rosario Mendes failed to control his shot which went just wide. In the 13th minute, Vasco keeper Jerson who started today after spending almost half of the season on the bench got seriously injured and was immediately taken to hospital. Shilton Fernandes came in for him. As the match progressed, Salgaocar were looking more aggressive and made two more attempts to find the opener but Vasco defender Sudheesh made no mistake to clear both of them. First, he cleared Gilbert Oliveira’s cross which was finding a well-placed Kamo in the box. Later he came up with an excellent goal line clearance to deny Liston’s placement. Salgaocar had one last chance before the half time whistle but this time also Gilbert’s goal bound shot from distance was blocked by Vasco keeper Shilton. Salgaocar came with two back -to-back attempts at the start of the second half but Vasco keeper Shilton superbly guarded the frame. First, he made a diving effort to clear Gilbert’s back header and later denied Kamo in the same fashion. Kamo wasted one more opportunity when he failed to connect with an open header from close range off Gilbert’s cross. The match took an interesting turn when Salgaocar’s substitute striker Aslon Oliveira was shown his second yellow card and given his marching orders after his reckless tackle on Vasco keeper Shilton. A few minutes later Salgaocar were awarded a free-kick at the edge of the box. Keith Baubcar’s kick was blocked by the Vasco wall but referee Xavier Clemente asked for the set-piece to be retaken. This time Kamo made no mistake to curl the same into the top right corner of the goal and sent Salgaocar players and coaching staff into celebrations. Energized by the goal, Salgaocar came up with one more attempt on the opponent’s goal but Vasco’s Nagesh Naju came up with a goal line clearance to deny Gilbert from scoring. The only chance for Vasco came in the dying minutes of the match but skipper Jaison’s attempt was brilliantly blocked by Salgaocar keeper Naveen. Though Salgaocar managed to beat their city rivals, head coach Norbert was not happy with the performance of the players and said, “We didn't score like last time because of the overconfidence in the team. We didn’t produce even 70% of what we did in the last match.” With these three points, Salgaocar moved to the 3rd place with 21 points from 10 matches played, while Vasco remain 8th in the league table with 9 points from 10 matches. Photo © : RJ 28 [KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]