KOCHI: Kerala Blasters woke up from their slumber late in the second half to sneak past Odisha FC by a solitary goal in the ISL encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here on Monday evening. The all-important goal came from Sandeep Singh, who headed home the winner in the 86th minute.
The Blasters, under Ivan Vukomanovic, are known for their energetic game. However, the one that turned up on Monday looked a jaded unit as they missed their usual vigour. Thankfully for the home side, Odisha didn’t fare much better.
Only one chance was created in the first 45 minutes, and it was the visitors who came close to scoring. In the third minute, Raynier Fernandes received an aerial ball outside the box, controlled it with his chest, and smashed it towards Blasters’ goal. But it rebounded after hitting the bar and fell before Nandhakumar. But he failed to grab the opportunity as his strike sailed over the goal.
After that, the capacity crowd at JNI had to wait till the 66th minute to see an opportunity being created. Sahal, who was off-colour for most of the day, found Dimitrios Diamantakos on the left for Blasters. But the forward’s strike went above the bar.
Vukomanovic made a double substitution in the 70th minute by replacing KP Rahul and Dimitrios for Nihal Sudeesh and Apostolos Giannou. The game then gained pace as Nihal made some quick runs into the Odisha post.
But with Blasters struggling in the final third, it seemed that the only way they would score was from a mistake committed by their rivals. Odisha goalkeeper Amrinder Singh provided that in the 86th minute as he misjudged the elevation of a Bryce Miranda cross from the left and saw the ball flying past his outstretched hands. Sandeep, who was unmarked inside the box, didn’t need a second invitation to head the ball into goal. The goal seemed to have turned on the Blasters who went in search of a second but couldn’t capitalise on the chances that came their way and had to be content with a sluggish win.
With this victory, Blasters moved to the third spot in the points table with 22 points from 11 matches. Mumbai City (27 points) and Hyderabad FC (25 points) are ahead of them.
