Mumbai's Mahindra United were lucky to snatch a 1-1 draw against Goa's Vasco Sports Club in a National Football League match at the Cooperage in Mumbai on Friday.
They were in arrears following a 16th minute strike by Vasco's Brazilian import Savio Soares, who headed the ball home over goalkeeper Sandip Nandy after being fed by compatriot Sydney Rodrigues.
Mahindra showed some urgency after falling in arrears and restored parity ten minutes later through their Brazilian recruit Rodrigo De Almeida.
Almeida headed in a deflection off a defender following a corner kick from the left by medio Jatin Bisht, who, otherwise, did precious little during the match.
The draw took Mahindra's points tally to 19 from 12 outings while bottom-placed Vasco boosted theirs to nine from the same number of outings.
A minute before the equaliser, Mahindra had a golden chance to score but another Brazilian recruit, Flavio Rodrigues, muffed a sitter by shooting straight into Vasco's ex-India custodian Virender Singh from close.
Vasco were thwarted early in the second half by the quicksilver reflexes shown by Mahindra 'keeper Nandy, who charged out in time to foil Anees K.
The Goans lost another chance to secure the match-winner late in the day when Francis Fernandes fired wide from inside the box following a diagonal pass from Anees.
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