Calangute Association beat Corps of Signals in thrilling GPL encounter

The Beachside club went top of the table after a second successive win in the league.

Calangute Association came from behind to register a hard-fought 2-1 win over Corps of Signals in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

Corps were high on confidence as they had started their GPL campaign with a 2-1 win over FC Bardez, whereas Calangute were in a similar mood after defeating Churchill Brothers in their opening match.

Amar Halankar was back in the Calangute starting XI. This was the only change for the Beachside Club, while Corps coach Sub chose to go with the same playing XI, which earned him full points in the last match.

It was a few seconds after a kick-off when the Beachside club had the chance to take the lead but Joston Pereira’s shot missed the target by few inches. Five minutes later, they once again came close to scoring when Leslee Brito sent a lofted cross in the box to Josley Dias, but his overhead kick was brilliantly collected by Corps keeper Binu P.

At the other end, Signals also had an opportunity to open their tally when Harshad Thube dribbled past few defenders in his run and found Cyril Dias in the box with a cut-back pass but the U-20 striker’s shot sailed over the crossbar.

Whereas Calangute’s Josley saw his strong tap off Joston’s low cross was divingly saved by keeper Binu.

Despite a dominant play and continues attacks on the opponents, Calangute failed to break the deadlock and surprisingly it was Corps who drew the first blood in a counter-attack in the 43rd minutes. In the event, Cyril set up a Harshad on the wing with an excellent through pass, who made a superb run cutting past a defender and curled the ball into the box to Cyril again. The striker made no mistake from the 6-yards as his tap hit the inside of crossbar and finished in the net making it 1-0 for the Army men.

Calangute regrouped and came out stronger in the second half as after continues attacking for next 25 minutes, they finally found the equaliser when Omkar More sent a cut-back pass from the box to on-rushing Domnic Fernandes whose powerful grounder beat every opponent and finished in the bottom corner making it 1-1 for his side.

The Beachside had another opportunity to take the lead in the 75th minutes when substitute Myron Fernandes was in the commanding position to score the goal but out of position keeper, Binu stretched to his limit to deny the winger.

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A minute later, Josley brought their entire supporter on the feet as he scored the brilliant goal after getting a hold of a lob pass from Kouame Joseph in the box.

The last few minutes witnessed more attacking football from the Army men but strong defending and superb goalkeeping from the Beachside kept them away from at least a point.