Goa Police Cup 2019: Sporting Goa blank Churchill Brothers, set to meet FC Goa in the final

Dempo SC will face Churchill Brothers in the third place playoff.

Sporting Clube de Goa secured a place in the final of the Goa Police Cup 2019 as they eased past Churchill Brothers by an easy 2-0 margin in the semi-final on Monday. Both the goals were scored in the first half as Philip Odogwu and Marcus Mascarenhas helped the defending champions to defeat the Red Machines.

Sporting had few changes to their side as Philip made the cut to the starting XI, along with Cajetan Fernandes. On the other hand, Churchill’s in-form striker Willis Plaza missed as he was suspended due to a red card in the quarter-final match against Salgaocar FC. Churchill’s Nigerian coach Edward Ansah fielded their Spanish midfielder Joaquin Barbero in the playing XI.

The Flaming Orange started the match on an attacking note and took just seven minutes to surge ahead as a fine cross by Marcus was brilliantly headed in by Philip from close to put Sporting ahead. A few minutes later, Churchill had the best chance to level back when Ganesh Thakur found Israil Gurung in the box with a long cross but the skipper failed to keep his strike on target as the ball went out for a goal kick.

Sporting came up with another fierce attack in the 16th minutes when George D’Souza went for glory from some distance but his shot was flicked over the crossbar by Churchill keeper Kunzang Bhutia.

At the other end, Churchill had another opportunity to make it all square when they were awarded a free-kick just outside the box, however, Gurung saw his curling strike miss the target by a whisker. A few minutes later, Churchill once again came close to equalising as Gurung sent a perfect cross to Mauvin Borges in the box, who tapped the ball wide from point-blank range.

Sporting punished them for wasting easy chances as they doubled their lead in the 36th minute when Sachidanand Satelkar made a low cross to Cajetan who found onrushing Marcus with a beautiful lob pass where the Sporting skipper found the net with a beautiful header to make it 2-0 for Sporting.

Sporting almost inflated their lead in the starting of the second half when Peter Carvalho’s long free-kick was smartly headed in by Marcus. However, Philip tapped the ball in the nets before assistant referee Deepraj Sangelkar raised the flag for offside.

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Churchill also came close to scoring in the 54th minutes as Mauvin tried his luck with a long-distance shot which was blocked by Sporting custodian Akshat Hadkonkars.

In the other Semifinal, FC Goa registered an easy 2-0 win over Dempo SC at Ella Ground on Wednesday.