PANAJI: Joaquim Abranches scored an 86th-minute match-winner as Vasco Sports Club scored a 1-0 win over Sesa Football Academy in Goa Football Association’s Selvel Goa Professional League at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Friday.
The Port-Towners now have six points to their name while Sesa FA remain on 1 point from three games.
Sesa FA launched the first attack on goal when Sandeep S played a short pass to Myron Borges at the top of the box. However, his curling effort was saved by the Vasco custodian Sanju Thapa.
Vasco came agonisingly close to scoring in the 14th minute when Francis Fernandes attempted a left-foot shot from inside the box, but his shot hit the woodwork.
Sesa FA who mainly relied on counter-attacks, had a couple of decent runs into the rival territory through Myron Borges but they could not get the ball into the back of the net as Vasco’s defence was proving to be a hard nut to crack.
At the half-hour mark, Vasco had yet another chance when Francis Fernandes set Demon Gama through on goal but Sesa custodian Roanal Gaunkar brilliantly blocked his effort.
Sesa had a chance in the second half from a set-piece when they were awarded a freekick outside the box. Myron Borges sent in a cheeky cheap pass to Sameer Kashyap, who wasted a golden opportunity as he failed to connect onto the ball from the goal-mouth.
Vasco kept creating chance after chance. In the 68th minute substitute Joaquim Abranches played a defence-splitting through pass to Mathew Colaco, who beat Sesa FA’s last man with his blistering run in the area and with just the rival goalkeeper ahead, the lad drilled a low grounder from a tight angle which however, missed the target. Vasco missed yet another chance through Mathew when he was set through by Sanwil D’Costa.
Vasco SC finally scored in the 86th minute when Anil Gaonkar sent in a long ball into the box from the right to Joaquim Abranches who managed to get a touch onto the ball before he collided with the rival keeper. However, the ball rolled into the goal. The referee had a talk with the assistant referee, before deciding to allow the goal.
