Spirited Calangute go down to Sporting Goa

This win helped the Flaming Orange to climb to the third position with 35 points from 15 outings

Calangute Association played their heart out but it was not enough to earn them a point from an equally contested match as Sporting Clube de Goa downed them by a 3-1 margin in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today. Marcus Mascarenhas scored the brace, while Victorino Fernandes scored the other goal for Sporting. Sachidanand Satelkar scored the lone goal for the Beachside.

This win helped the Flaming Orange to climb to the third position with 35 points from 15 outings, while Calangute remained at the 11th position with just 13 points from 20 matches.

Sporting coach Mateus Costa made many changes to his side following a goalless draw against Guardian Angel SC in the last match as Egyptian midfielder Fady Riad, Marcus, Quan Gomes, Schubert D’Costa and U-20 defender Suresh Thapa named in the starting XI. Calangute who had lost to Goan FC in the last match also had few changes to their side as their coach Agostinho Dias brought back Sachidanand, Jayganesh Goltekar and Rup Das in the lineup. Whereas, Sporting had upper hand when they met last time as Flaming Orange edged the Beachside by a solitary goal in the early November.

Calangute had a golden opportunity to stun the defending champions in the 7th minutes when they were awarded a penalty by referee Prasad Surlekar when Sporting defender Clive Miranda brought down Senegalese striker Abdoul Fall felt in the box but his counterpart midfielder Sidath Ndiaye’s shot from the spot kick was brilliantly saved by Sporting keeper Melroy Fernandes.

Whereas, Sporting who were the dominant side from the start of the session took 25 minutes to open their tally as George D’Souza sent a perfect cross in the box where skipper Victorino failed to capitalise but onrushing striker Marcus tapped the ball home from close to put his side ahead.

Ten minutes later, Calangute had a chance to level the terms when Fall set up Ndiaye with a through pass who covered some ground and was in the commanding position to score but the Senegalese mideo chose to pass it to his teammate where Sporting defender George quickly cleared the danger.

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Sporting doubled their lead on the counter-attack as Glan made pin-point perfect through pass to Victorino who clinically finished the ball at the first post with a powerful shot from just inside the box to make it 2-0 for his side.

With just a few minutes left to the half time, Sporting had an easy chance to further inflate their lead when Calangute defender Gaurav Vaigankar brought down Sporting U-20 midfielder Stendly Fernandes in the box to give away the penalty but Calangute keeper Sanij Bugde made diving efforts to block Sporting skipper Victorino’s spot kick.

Whereas, Calangute reduced the margin in the last minute of the session when Senegalese midfielder Ndiaye set up Sachidanand in the box with a headed pass. The winger smartly finished the ball in the nylons to make it 2-1 for his side.

Calangute continued their attacking from the start of the second session and twice came close to scoring as first, substitute Jason Lucas sent a through pass to Sachidanand who made a darting run on the left wing but shot in the hands of Sporting keeper Melroy. Four minutes later, Sachidanand had another chance to make it all square for his side when defender Runal Shirodkar brilliantly cut past few opponents at the halfway line and found the winger with a through pass but the lad shot wide from inside the box.

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Sporting also made few raids on the opponents but Calangute defence line led by Gaurav and Jayganesh along with Runal and Danish Shaikh cleared every danger on their way.

However, in the 82nd minute, once again Marcus was successful to break Calangute’s defence as he nicely chested down substitute Girish Naik’s lob pass and blast the ball home from 6-yards to make it 3-1 for the Flaming Orange.