Lucky Goa force 2-2 draw, knock out Haryana in Santosh Trophy

Gurgaon, Oct 18 (UNI) A Nicholas Rodrigues strike in the last minute saved holders Goa from a shock elimination as they returned from the brink of disaster to hold a spirited Haryana 2-2 in a dramatic in Group A quarterfinal league match of the 61st Santosh Trophy here today.

Freddy Marcarenhas (62nd) and Nicholas Rodrigues (90th) scored for the Goans, while Sandeep Malik (65th) and Sanjeev (75th) found the net for Haryana.

Till the 82nd minute, when play was stopped due to power failure at the Chaudhuri Devi Lal Stadium here, the hosts were leading 2-1.

Haryana had come from behind after trailing 0-1 till the 65th minute and the vociferous home crowd was anticipating a Haryana win which would have put them in contention for the semi-final berth.

But the Rodrigues strike denied them the win and Haryana are now eliminated, having collected only two points from three matches.

Playing their best match so far, the hosts could have won the thrilling match by a bigger margin but the woodwork denied that on two occasions.

Egged on a by the partisan crowd, Haryana turned the tables and the Goan defence looked both vulnerable and porous with repeated Hayryana attacks.

The mercurial Goans today failed to find the touch of the last match against Bengal which they had won 2-0.

After some initial dangerous goal-bound moves by Goa, it was Haryana's turn to prove they are no pushovers in the tournament and Goa in fact was lucky to go into the breather with the scorelines reading 0-0 as Haryana were beaten by the crossbar twice.

A Manish Mathani pass in the 31st minute saw Sanjeev weaving through the Goan defence but his well-placed right footer beat the jumping goalkeeper but came back into play after hitting the bar.

Nine minutes later, Sanjeev stole the ball from outside the rival box, darted down the right goalline and essayed a diagonal pass which went clear of goalkeeper to Parveen Arora but Arora's right-footed tapping in front of the empty goal hit the woodwork again.

But the real drama unfolded in the second session with the Goans pressing for the lead and they were lucky to take the lead through spot kick conversion after a goal-bound Peter Calvalho was brought down inside the danger area by a Haryana defender. Freddy Marcarenhas made no mistake in converting the penalty kick.

Four minutes had not elapased as Haryana struck back with Sandeep Malik scoring through a powerful header from a corner kick taken from the left by Devesh which gave no chance to rival defenders.

The hosts did not relax and deservingly took the lead in the 75th minute through Sanjeev when his left footer inside the penalty area, a second attempt, stunned the Goa goalkeeper.

Haryana supporters were smelling history but a power failure in the 82nd minute stopped play and after resumption the break turn out the spoiler and just seconds before the end of regulation time, Nicholas headed in to frustrate the Haryana fans.

UNI PDS AY BS1946