Dempo come from behind to down Calangute, go top of the table in GPL

Suraj Hadkonkar came off the bench to score the winner after Beevan D’Mello scored the equaliser for the Golden Eagles. 

Dempo Sports Club came from a goal down to beat Calangute Association 2-1 in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With this win, Dempo goes on top with 15 points from seven matches, whereas Calangute remains 6th with just 8 points from seven outings.

Calangute had lost to Sporting Clube de Goa by a solitary goal in the last match, whereas Dempo were also squeezed past 3-2 by FC Bardez in the previous round.

Once again Dempo gaffer Samir Naik continued with his core team making no changes to his playing XI from the last match, while Blake Haldankar and Marc D’Cruz were back in the Calangute starting XI.

The match started with a midfield-play as both the teams tried to keep the ball in the entire session. However, Both the sides had a chance each to take the lead but first Calangute’s Bersal Viegas saw his shot nicely collected by rival keeper Agnelo Gomes, while Dempo’s Kapil Hoble shot wide from inside after receiving a perfect through pass from Beevan D’Mello.

Though the first session witnessed only two potent attacks, the second half was full of action as Calangute came with the opener in the very second minutes after changing the sides as Joston Pereira made a cut back to Omkar More in the box after receiving a long ball from Domnic Fernandes, the substitute later banged it from the inside to make it 1-0 for the Beachside.

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Dempo found the equaliser in the 52nd minutes through Beevan as the striker brilliantly tap in from close after his brilliant footwork converted Nickson Castanha’s off-target shot into the assist.

Four minutes later, Dempo once again came up with the chance when Yogesh Kadam nicely curled it to Latesh but the striker’s shot from inside missed the target by a whisker.

At the other end, Omkar made a darting run in the box dribbling past Dempo defender Shallum Pires but his sparkling shot from inside was excellently pushed away for safety by Dempo keeper Agnelo. A few minutes later, Omkar was once again in the action when he once again cut past Dempo defender Shallum but this time he failed to control his shot from inside the box.

Dempo had the best chance on the counter-attack when Beevan sent a cross to Yogesh in the box who sent it back to well-positioned Jaison Vaz in the box but his header sailed over the crossbar, while, in the 76th minutes, Beevan saw his diving header missed the target by few inches off substitute Suraj Hadkonkar’s curling cross.

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After some continues attack, Dempo were finally successful in breaking Calangute’s last line in the 81st minutes when Suraj fine free-kick from the edge of the box entered the top corner making it 2-1 for the Golden Eagles.

Calangute also had one last chance of the match in the 89th minutes as Josely Dias nicely dribbled past two defenders to enter the box but Keeper Agnelo’s diving efforts pushed his shot for a safety.