Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: FC Sanquelim broke the hearts of Xetrapal SC as they had to wait for the penalty shoot out to outplay their opponents by 5-4 margin in the GFA’s Division III play-offs Bardez Zone match played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Tuesday.
Xetrapal SC took an early lead in the 8th minute when skipper Sandip Dhargalkar sent a through pass to Sonu Mandrekar and the latter did not waste time to take a 25-yard rasping shot which dipped into the far corner of the goal, 1-0.
On resumption of play, FC Sanquelim time and again attacked the rival citadel in search of an equaliser and the luck finally prevailed in the 85th minute of play where Tanmay Gaonkar capitalised on the misunderstanding between the rival defender and goalkeeper to slam the ball into the goal, 1-1.
With the match ending in a 1-1 draw, the penalty shoot-out was enforced where for FC Sanquelim colts Aryan Sawant, Rudresh Mandrekar, Arun Paryekar and Sidhant Naik shot on target, while for Xetrapal SC Kanaya Govenkar, Saleen Shirodkar and Raj Dalvi scored.
With Tuesday’s win, FC Sanquelim qualified for next season’s GFA Division II League.