Goemkarponn desk
Margao: In a high scoring game, Sporting Clube de Goa and Cortalim Villagers played out a 4-4 draw in the Goa Professional League at Benaulim ground, on Wednesday.
Sporting scored through Vidipt Dua (22′), Mark Carvalho (49′), Alister Anthony (59′) and Rohan Rodrigues (88′).
Richie Vaz (18′), Michael Dias (23′), Denil Rebello (67′), Velroy Carvalho (77′) were on target for Cortalim.
After 18 games, Sporting have 34 points and move on top of the standings while Cortalim are on the same number of points in the second spot. Sporting are on top as they had edged past Cortalim 1-0 in the first leg.
With both the teams in the top-three of the standings, it was always going to be a fierce clash.
Cortalim’s Ronil Azavedo almost gave his team the breakthrough after a lapse with Sporting goalkeeper Abhimanyu Singh out of his position, but his effort missed the target narrowly.
At the other end, Joyson Gauncar created the first move after sending in a cross, but striker Akeraj Martins’ effort sailed over from close.
However, Cortalim got the breakthrough in the 18th minute when Richie Vaz capitalised on a defensive mix-up and finished neatly.
Sporting replied within four minutes when Vidipt headed in a cross from Joyson Coutinho.
But lack of concentration proved dearly again for Sporting as they conceded in the very next minute.
Abhimanyu tried hard but couldn’t block a curler from Michael.
Sporting replaced their strikers at the break as Alister Anthony and Mark Carvalho headed the attack.
The move paid off four minutes into the second half as Sporting won a free-kick. Biswa Darjee played the set piece for Rohan Rodrigues down the left flank and the winger found Mark, who headed in to make it 2-2.
There was no looking back for Sporting as they took the lead in the 59th minute after Alister’s delightful chip over the rival keeper Francis Vincent.
Unfortunately, in the 67th minute, Alister handled the ball in danger zone and Denil converted from the resultant spot kick. And 10 minutes later, Cortalim regained the lead as Velroy finished from close.
But Sporting didn’t give up and with two minutes to go, Rohan made it 4-4 with a composed finish.
