Sporting reach semis, just reach

Kolkata, Dec 22 (UNI) Sporting Clube de Goa scrapped past a ten men Salgaocar 1-0 via an extra time free-kick by Nicholas Rodrigues to reach the semi-finals of the 28th Federation Cup at the Salt Lake Stadium here today.

It was a very tight match to begin with, none of the teams give much room to the other. However, Sporting were nowhere close to the usual high standards they set for themselves with star players like Dudu Macpherlin and Ernest Jeremiah in their ranks.

Clumsy tackling and mispasses were aplenty in the match and none of the team ever looked like they would be able to score at any point of time.

The already woeful match was further marred when play was stopped in between due to some problems in the floodlights. Play resumed but there was not much change in the quality. Salgaocar got a chance against the run of play who had a chance to go ahead in the 74th but Felix Chimarow missed a one on one as custodian Felix D'Souza managed to make a crucial save for his team.

The game was stretched till the extra time and finally Sporting started to show some sense of urgency. The solitary goal of the match came in the 102nd minute when a Rodrigues freekick curved towards the far post, hitting the inside of the crossbar and entering the net.

UNI BA SY GC2346