Sesa Football Academy down Calangute Association in Goa Police Cup

The Academy Boys will face Sporting Clube de Goa in the quarter-finals.  

Sesa Football Academy started their campaign with a win, as they secured a 2-0 success over Calangute Association in their opening match of the Goa Police Cup 2019, played at Duler Stadium here on Friday.

The Academy Boys made a dream start to the match, as they took just six minutes to open their tally. A low cross from Vishnu Gosavi was smartly tapped in from close range by Richard Cardoz to make it 1-0 for his side.

Energized by an early lead, Sesa came out attacking and doubled their advantage in the 15th minute, when a fine corner by Joston Pereira was brilliantly headed in by Mark Barreto. A few minutes later, Sesa midfielder Joston Pereira tried his luck with a fierce strike from distance, but Calangute custodian Sroop brilliantly fisted it over the crossbar for a corner.

The Beachside took 30 minutes to come close to scoring, as their defender Gaurav Vaigankar made a superb through-pass to Daryl Costa in the box, but Sesa defender Shoib Akhtar made a timely clearance to keep his side safe.

Two minutes later, Daryl had another chance to reduce the margin for the Beachside, but his strike missed the target narrowly with rival keeper completely out of position. With just a few seconds to half-time, Sesa were reduced to 10 men when referee Prasad Surlikar showed a direct red card to their skipper Caitano Viegas for elbowing Daryl.

On crossing over, Calangute took advantage of the extra man on the field and made numerous raids on the rivals, but few aimless shots and sloppy attacks restricted them from finding the net, as Sesa advanced to the next round with a neat win.

In the other matches played at different venues, Churchill Brothers outclassed Panjim Footballers by a 5-1 margin, while, Guardian Angel secured a hard-fought 1-0 win over Velsao SCC. In the other match played in the evening, Corps of Signals stunned Vasco SC, as they registered an entertaining 3-2 win at Ella Ground.