Salgaocar hold Guardian Angel in thrilling GPL encounter

The Green Brigade once again dropped two important points in the title race.

Mackroy Peixote and Joel Sunday scored in the second half as Salgaocar FC held Guardian Angel Sports Club to a high scoring 2-2 draw in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Stadium earlier today.

With this draw, Salgaocar could not make any difference to their position as they stand last with just 5 points from 6 matches, while Angles has 10 points from the same number of matches.

Salgaocar had registered their first win of the season against Calangute Association in the last match, while Angels had defeated FC Goa by a solitary goal in their previous match.

Angels had only one change to their side as Lincon Colaco replaced injured Myron Borges in the starting XI. Whereas, Salgaocar missed the services of Brian Mascarenhas as the winger was injured, while Umesh Harijan was also unavailable for the selection due double booking suspension. Devendra Murgaonkar and Gilbert Oliveira replaced them in the playing XI, while, Lalit Tarila was the new face in the lineup.  

Salgaocar should have taken the lead in the 4th minutes when Devendra sent a low cross to Nigerian striker Joel Sunday in the box but the striker shot wide from close.

Whereas, Angels surged ahead from their first potent attack when Clifton Dias’ 35-yard free-kick deflected of Salgaocar defender Leny Pereira and finished in the goal making it 1-0 for the Curchorem side.

A minute after this, Angels foreign striker Abel Hammond was replaced by Perryson Rebelo due to injury in the early stage of the match.

Salgaocar had a chance to equalise when Angel defender Nicolau Colaco handled the ball just outside the box but Sunday saw his shot go just over the crossbar from 20 yards.

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At the other end, Rayman Fernandes had a glorious opportunity to double Angels’ lead when he was in the commanding position with just keeper at the stake but the medio shot wide from inside the box.

In the later part of the session, Salgaocar came twice close to scoring but first Angels keeper Ram Sroop made a diving save to block Sanson Pereira’s curling free-kick, while in the added time of the first half, Sunday failed to connect from close to Lalit’s brilliant through pass from inside the box.

The second session saw Angels adding one more to their goal tally minutes when Joval Fernandes shot it Salgaocar keeper Abijit Das and landed to well-positioned substitute Anthony Barbosa who just tap above the out of position keeper, in the goal making it 2-0 at the hour mark.

Salgaocar reduced the margin in the 66th minutes when Mackroy dribbled past a defender and shot on the inside the box which finished in the back of the nylons making it 1-2 for the Green Brigade.

A very next minute, Salgaocar almost scored as substitute Clencio Pinto tried his luck from distance but Angels keeper Ram pushed it for a corner. While Curchorem side had a chance to further increase their lead when Leny’s back-pass header was nicely intercepted by Perryson but failed to direct it toward the goal.

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With less than 15 minutes to go, both the teams were reduced to 10 men as Salgaocar’ Clencio and Angels Clifton were sent for following their assault on each other.

However, the drama did not end here as Salgaocar found the equaliser in the added time when Sunday clinically headed between the rival keeper and the defenders to rescue a point from the match.