Panjim Footballers and FC Goa share the spoils in GPL

Egyptian Fady Riad scored for the Capital city side, while Krishna Pandit equalised for the junior Gaurs.

FC Goa and Panjim Footballers played out a 1-1 draw in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With this draw, Goans climbed one place to 5th spot with 33 points from 20 matches, whereas, Panjim are in the bottom half of the league table with just 19 points from 21 outings.

Panjim who had lost to Churchill Brothers in the last match had two changes as their manager Anthony Vaz brought in defender Schubert D’Costa and Mahesh Kumar in the starting XI, whereas Goans coach Clifford Miranda also made the same number of changes following their 1-0 win over Churchill Brothers as defender Meldon Silva and Sezwin Fernandes made the comeback in the playing XI for the junior Gaurs.

Goans should have taken the lead in the very 5th minute when Lalawmpuia was nicely set up in the goalmouth by Saviour Gama with an excellent low cross but the forward failed to convert the easy chance as the ball went out for a goal-kick.

A few minutes later, Goans had another chance to take the lead when Lalawmpuia was left with just Panjim keeper Gurpreet Singh to beat but the Panjim custodian came with a brilliant block to deny the striker.

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At the other end, Panjim forward Snedden Rodrigues was brought down in the box by Goan defender Franzil Negredo where referee Deepraj Sangelkar quickly pointed towards the penalty spot. Egyptian midfielder Fady Riad calmly converted the spot kick to put Panjim into the lead in the 25th minute.

However, in the very next minute, Goan speedy winger Krishna Pandit levelled the terms when he made an easy tap-in to Lalawmpuia’s cut-back pass to make it 1-1 for the Junior Gaurs.

Kingslee Fernandes had a golden opportunity to put Goans into the lead in the 33rd minute when the tricky midfielder brilliantly cut past Panjim’s two defenders in the box and shot on the goal from close but Panjim custodian Gurpreet was at his best as he brilliantly blocked it for safety.

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On changing the ends, Goans created many chances in the first 30 minutes but none of their moves broke the Panjim’s strong defence. However, in the 75th minute, Kingslee made a defence-splitting lob pass to substitute Jason Barbosa but the latter failed to capitalise on an easy chance.

The last quarter saw Panjim controlling the match with continues attacks but Goan defenders stood tall to clear every danger from his side.