Victorino’s scoring artistry silences Panjim Footballers

NT NETWORK

 

DULER

Sporting Clube de Goa has a different look without Victorino Fernandes and the orange look more vibrant when he is given the captains band as witnessed in their 4-0 win over Panjim Footballers in the Goa Football Assiociation (GFA) Professional League at Duler stadium on Thursday.

Victorino scored thrice and Sporting jumped to the second spot, displacing Dempo Sports Club to the third. Sportimg are now with nineteen points from nine matches while Panjim has four points from seven encounters.

Panjim footballers, who are yet to register a win, had the best chance to stun defending champions Sporting in the 13th minutes when their winger Daryl Costa brilliantly snatched the ball from Sporting defender Suresh Thapa, just outside the box, but failed to take control and allowed defender Clement Joseph to make a clearance at the cost of corner.

However, Sporting took the lead in the 19th minutes when Panjim goalkeeper Sherwin Da Cunha erred in collecting a clearance from his teammate and Victorino Fernandes took advantage of the situation and slotted the ball home from inside the box.

Cajetan Fernandes doubled the lead for Flaming Orange in the 28th minutes when he collected a long throw-in from teammate Clive Miranda and smartly shot past keeper Sherwin from 6-yards to make it 2-0.

Sporting added the third to their tally during added time as Victorino scored – his second goal of the match – when Egyptian midfielder Fady Riad created an excellent through pass for the striker to make no mistake from close.

Sporting led by three goals at half time.

Like in the first half, Panjim once again started on an attacking note and quickly marched on the opponents after the change of ends as Alston Camatio made a darting run on the wing and went for the glory from just outside the box but his powerful strike missed the target.

A few minutes later, Panjim once again raided on the rivals as this time Vallmiky Miranda found Daryl Costa with a through pass but his shot was easily collected by Sporting keeper Melroy Fernandes.

Panjim had another opportunity to reduce their margin in the 63rd minutes as Alston sent a cross to Cyril Dias in the box but the substitute striker saw his powerful strike denied by keeper Melroy with a diving effort.

A few minutes later, Victorino completed his hat-trick as the striker clinically finished the ball in the back of the net, after getting a perfect through pass from Cajetan in the box.

Sporting coach brought in Alesh Sawant in the last quarter and the winger made two superb through passes to skipper Victorino in the box but first, his shot rebounded off the crossbar, while the other was pushed for a corner by the Panjim goalkeeper.