Salgaocar trump FC Bardez Goa to win Champions Trophy Charity Cup

The Greens started the season with a win...

It was a clash of two champions as last season’s Goa Professional League champions Salgaocar FC and Goa Police Cup winners FC Bardez Goa met in the Champions Trophy Charity Cup match played at Duler Football Stadium earlier today. The Greens eased past the Pink Brigade 2-0.

Bardez featured lots of changes in their squad with most of the junior players making it in the starting XI. However, head coach Armando Colaco made sure that some of the senior players like Lenston Afonso, Jessel Carneiro and Shubham Rao Dessai also made the cut. While Salgaocar coach Norberto Gonsalves introduced newly signed Agnelo Colaco and defender Assumption Soares in the playing XI.

The match started with possession football from both sides and was restricted to midfield play for the first 30 minutes. This phase of play did not see any potent attempts on goal from eiither side.

As the match progressed, the Greens enjoyed better possession and made many attempts to find the net. In one of these, Harmanjot Singh tried to find Lalit Tarido in the box with a fine cross from the flank but Bardez defender Stanly D’Silva cleared it over the cross for a corner.

Later, they again came close to scoring within the next five minutes but this time Salgaocar’s Gilbert Oliveira saw his shot rebound off the crossbar from close range.

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However the Greens managed to open the tally in added time of the first half when Harmanjot once again came with a fine cross from the halfway line to find unmarked Gilbert in the box who simply tapped above the advancing Bardez keeper Vivek Gopal into the back of the nylons to make it 1-0 for the Vasco based club.

Down by a goal, Bardez coach Colaco made two changes at half-time as he brought in Clinton Niassio and Ronil Azaurdo replacing Floyd Fernandes and Shubham. While Salgaocar coach Norberto also made three changes to his side bringing in Cleancio Pinto, Ribhav Sardesai and Sanson Pereira in place of Agnelo, Denil Rebello and Assumption.

Like in the first session, the second half also started with possession play, but this time Salgaocar were dominant in keeping the ball while Bardez players were struggling to get hold of the same. In between this, Harmonjot once again showed his calibre when he cut past a defender in the box and shot on goal but the Bardez keeper nicely fisted it over the crossbar.

At the other end, Bardez had a golden opportunity to equalise with just 20 minutes to go on the clock when Jessel’s curling corner found Lenston in the box who headed in the top corner but Salgaocar custodian Abhijit Das pushed it wide for a corner with a diving effort. From the resulting corner, Jessel once again set up Lenston in front of empty goal but this time he failed to control his header as the ball went out for a goal-kick.

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A few minutes later, Salgoacar doubled their lead through substitute Clencio. The forward’s blistering shot from distance directly finished in the net confirming Salgaocar’s victory.