KOCHI
There was a nice and dramatic Ukrainian touch to the Kerala Blasters’ party as they won their Hero Indian Super League opener against East Bengal FC 3-1 at a packed Nehru Stadium here on Friday.
Coming in as a 79th minute substitute, replacing forward Apostolos Giannou, Ukrainian Ivan Kaliuzhnyi was quick to make his mark and make a dream debut. Minutes after arriving, the 24-year-old, who had come on loan from FK Oleksandriya two months ago, made a quick run from the centre, dodged past a couple of defenders and cooly sent the ball in. Everything was over in a jiffy and Ivan made it look all so easy.