PANAJI: Sporting Clube de Goa and FC Goa played out a goalless draw in Goa Football Association’s Selvel Goa Professional League at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Thursday.
Sporting Clube de Goa came close to scoring in the 15th minute when Myron Fernandes sent a long throw into the box, which was flicked behind at the back post to Dattaraj Gaonkar, whose toe-poked shot narrowly missed the side post.
Soon after the water break, Sporting had a goal ruled out for a foul in the buildup. Joel sent a cross from the left to Rohit Totad into the penalty area. Rohit fed Philip Odogwu in front of the goal. After a tussle with the keeper and defender on the goalline, the ball was sent into the net from a goal-mouth melee by the Nigerian but the referee had blown the whistle for a foul on a FC Goa player.
FC Goa created a beautiful move in the 42nd minute when Christy Davis lobbed an accurate ball to onrushing Sarineo Fernandes, who timed his run brilliantly to volley the goal attempt, only to see it hit the side-netting.
After the change of ends, FC Goa had the first chance in the 52nd minute when Delton Colaco ran down the left flank and set up Sarineo Fernandes through on goal. But before the last-named could pull the trigger, Kunal came up with a timely tackle to send the ball for a corner. From the resultant corner, the attack came to nothing.
Sporting Clube were making inroads into FC Goa base using their flanks but they could not get the final touch. During one such attempt, FC Goa’s Brian Faria came up with a vital interception to stop Rohit from finding Marcus in the box.
Sporting had a brilliant chance to score in the 74th minute. First Marcus saw his goal-bound shot being blocked by FC Goa defender but the ball travelled to Philip, who sent the ball on the far post to Sachidanand. The winger whipped in a perfect delivery to Marcus, whose header from inside the six-yard box, went over the crossbar.
At the other end, FC Goa had two chances to score late in the game. But Delton first failed to connect his shot and then Aaron DSilva saw his weak effort sail past the post.
Sporting Clube de Goa were awarded a penalty kick late into the second-half injury time when Marcus was brought down in the box by Lesly Rebello. But Clive’s effort was easily saved by custodian Antonio Da Silva and the rebound came to Clive, who squandered the chance to hit the target again.
