Kerala Blasters FC top of the table after away win against East Bengal FC.
Kolkata : In last evening’s ISL fixture, Kerala Blasters secured three points in their away game against East Bengal FC with a 2-1 scoreline.
Kerala Blasters went into the contest with a largely unchanged starting line-up from their last game against Odisha FC with only difference being Rahul KP making way for striker Dimitrios Diamantakos.
The game started off with both teams looking to stamp their authority, which lead to the game being played with a certain degree of physicality which earned both teams two yellow cards each within the first quarter of the game.
However the visiting team didn’t allow this to effect their gameplan, as the midfield combination of Adrian Luna with Daisuke Sakai build an attack through the heart of the East Bengal defence leading to Daisuke putting a ball from Luna into the back of the net in the 34th minute, registering his first goal in Kerala Blasters colors.
KBFC continued pressing through the rest of the first half, giving literally no access to East Bengal to work their way upto into Blasters’ half of the pitch.
East Bengal came into the second half with three substitutions and renewed vigour to attack and test the resolute Kerala Blasters defence led by the experienced Pritam Kotal.
Despite East Bengal having greater amount of possession and more shots at the goal, the Blasters held on and nulfied every attempt from the Torchbearers to make a comeback into the game.
The resistance was eventually shaken when in the 85th minute Kerala Blasters FC conceded a penalty which was taken by East Bengal skipper Cleiton Silva. However goalkeeper Sachin Suresh rose to the occasion and saved the penalty with a lot of composure.
This moment was utilised by the Blasters unit to counter-attack in numbers soon transpiring into Dimitrios Diamantakos sealing the game in favour of the Blasters with a goal in the 89th minute.
However Diamantakos was penalized with a second yellow card for the game soon after scoring, when he took off his jersey to celebrate his goal.
Thereafter in the dying moments of the game, Blasters conceded another penalty due to a handball error in the box from full-back Sandeep Singh, this time Silva put the ball into the goal with the final whistle following soon after.
The three points earned from this fixture took the Blasters to 13 points from 6 games making them table toppers in the ISL points tally, underlining the consistency shown by the team.
Kerala Blasters will now be looking to continue this momentum when they play their next ISL fixture in Kochi on the 25th November against Hyderabad FC.
Substitutions
Mohammed Aimen [IN] – [OUT] Daisuke Sakai 90+5′
Rahul KP [IN] – [OUT] Kwame Peprah 79′
Mohammed Azhar [IN] – [OUT] Danish Farooq 62′
