New Delhi: A first half goal by Joseph Pereira helped Sporting Clube de Goa beat Mohammedan Sporting 1-0 at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.
First Half
The match started with both teams matching each other, blow for blow but the first real chance of the match came in the sixth minute when Sporting Club de Goa striker Junior took a free-kick from the right edge of the Mohammedan Sporting penalty area.
His deflected free-kick was parried off by Mohammedan custodian Naseem Akhtar right from the goal-line although Junior was convinced that the ball had crossed the line.
Sporting pressed on and created a wonderful chance in the 12th minute when a combination of Junior and Joseph Pereira saw Akhtar pull of a brilliant save.
For all their endeavour, Sporting did finally manage to break the deadlock in the 16th minute when a somewhat vague cross-shot from the right from Junior fell neatly to the feet of an unmarked Joseph Pereira at the far post. Pereira made no mistake from a couple of yards and gave the Goan side a 1-0 lead.
The match then went into a dull period with neither teams asserting themselves and half chances becoming the norm. Mohammedan’s best chance came when a wonderful cross from the right by Satyajit Bose was hit straight at Akhtar by substitute Suraj Mondal.
Mohammedan didn’t have the quality to match that of Sporting but they didn’t let go of the match. Instead they came out and finished the half the stronger of the two sides.
They did get a chance to equalize in the 41st minute when Sporting goalkeeper Felix D’Souza misread a cross and couldn’t stave it off from the six-yard box. This led to the ball bouncing invitingly in front of an open goal only for a Sporting defender to clear it.
Second Half
The second half commenced with Bibiano Fernandes trying his luck with a fiercely taken right-footed long ranger from the left side in the 48th minute. But Mohammedan goalie Naseem Akhtar managed to parry it off for a corner.
The match then settled into a low-key affair with neither side being able to retain possession. Just as it was during the middle of the first half, neither side expressed any concrete intensity to emphasize themselves over the other.
Then in the 65th minute, the Mohammedan supporters (on the opposite side of the press box) started pelting stones and stuff towards the pitch. The match was stopped for about three minutes during which the security took control of the situation.
The Mohammedan players appeared to have been buoyed by that incident as they came out of their blocks in a frantic search of an equaliser.
In the 73rd minute Eugene Gray set off on a wonderful run down the right side of the midfield but his cross didn’t manage to reach its intended destination and the ball was cleared.
Mohammedan did carry on attacking but Sporting didn’t sit back and soak the pressure. They were relying more on the counter-attacks and had some long-range efforts like Junior’s 86th minute effort from 20 yards which went harmlessly wide off the mark.
Just as they had done in the closing stages of the first half, Mohammedan were pressing on as the match paced to its end. Eugene Gray had a glorious chance in the 87th minute when he headed from just six yards out. It was Mohammedan’s best chance of the entire match and a miss that they were made to regret as Sporting marched onto a 1-0 victory to keep themselves at the top of the table for another round atleast.
Goalscorer: Joseph Pereira (Sporting Clube de Goa) 16'
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