A clinical and precise performance of Antonio Habas team secure the much important three points in Kochi. Mohun Bagan is in awesome form and scored 10 goals in their last 3 matches. With all their big gun delivering at the right time, they have successfully silenced the sea of yellow.
They have played back to back high intensity matches within 72 hours and there was concern about their physical ability to cater the situation. But, boy oh boy they have delivered and delivered it big time.
If you play against a noisy crowd, the best way to cater the situation is to silence them. And they have successfully silence the crowd for the major part of the game. They have scored as early as 4th minute of the game and their striker Armando Sadiku delivered the best goal of his ISL journey so far. The ball was intercepted by Anwar Ali on the middle of the pitch and the return ball came to Sadiku who then went past Indian International Pritam Kotal with ease and take a beautiful low grounder to the far post with Miloš on his back and makes the score 1-0.
The Blasters were rattled by the early goal and they took 10 more minutes to settle down. But before that Sadiku have taken another long ranger from the first attack of the team but that time the ball went straight to the Goalkeeper. Kerala up the ante and put pressure on left hand side of the pitch but their efforts were well dealt by the Bagan defense. In the first half Mohun Bagan tried to slow the tempo of the game and never allow Kerala Blasters to gain the momentum. But it was quite obvious that Kerala tried their best to crack down the Mohun Bagan defense. Mohun Bagan players were concentrating on their own half to cater the threat from the Kerala Players and could manage only 2 touches inside the Kerala Box. In that period Vibin was unarguably the best player on the pitch. And the same man break the resistance on 54th minute when a beautiful move from down the middle was nicely guided by Rahul KP and Vibin just placed that ball to the right hand side of Vishal Kaith within 4 Mohun Bagan players who were ball watching (1-1). But this Mohun Bagan team rebuild under Antonio Lopez Habas with a strong mentality and they have immediately restored their lead. The free kick was a cause by a mistake from another Indian International Jeakson Singh who lost control of the ball in his own half and then fouled Sahal for no reason. Dimi Petratos delivered a deep cross which headed back by Manvir then Sadiku chested down and took a first time volley on the second post to makes it (2-1) on the 64th minute.
But that lead was again bottled after 3 minute when Černych delivered a cross to Diamantakos who was allowed free space by Anwar and guided the ball past Vishal Kaith to makes it (2-2). But the Kolkata giant again restored their lead on the 68th minute. After conceding the goal Habas take Sahal off who had a average game and put in form Abhishek Suryavanshi on pitch and he made instant impact. His shots from 25 yards hurriedly saved by Kerala goalkeeper Karanjit Singh. But from the corner when Petratos delivered another pin point cross on the middle of the box the unmarked Dipak Tangri scored a fine header to makes it (3-2). The yellow brigade had the tendency to concede goals from the set pieces and it is very obvious that a experienced coach like Habas noticed that.
After the goal Kerala was almost accept the defeat because the fighting spirit which was visible after scoring the 1st and 2nd goal was suddenly gone. In this period Mohun Bagan had their chances to increase the lead but it was not happening till the 97th minute. In between this period a strong challenge inside the box on Sadiku denied his opportunity to score his first hatrick on 73rd minute. The replay clearly showed that Sadiku was tripped from behind by Kerala fullback Sandip but a strong appeal of penalty denied by the referee Harish Kundu. Petratos shot was hit the crossbar on 77th minute and substituted Jason Cummings was denied by Leskovic on 94th minute. Mohun Bagan finally increased their lead when Avishek delivered a long ball to Liston who then run passed Pritam and delivered a minus ball to Manvir who unable to dribbled past Leskovic, the ball then deflected and went on to the foot of unmarked Cummings who made no mistake to score (4-2). Mohun Bagan players were little bit relaxed after the goal and they had thrown away their two goal advantage in the last moment of the match when Diamantakos scored his 2nd goal of the match from a Justin Emmanuel cross and makes it (4-3). But that goal was too little too late.
With this win Mohun Bagan going to the international break with 2nd spot of the table with 39 points in 18 matches behind Mumbai who are on a same point with just one goal advantage. The momentum is with the Mariners and they are still very favourite to top the Indian Super League table for the first time in their history. The vibrant Kerala Mariners presence on the gallery were equally appreciated although they are very few in numbers in comparison to Blasters fans but eventually the quality matter the most rather than the quantity. With 4 games to play Mohun Bagan will reorganize themselves after international break the will play Chennaiyin FC on 31st March at Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Stadium, Salt Lake, Kolkata.
Starting XI:
Vishal(GK), Héctor, Subhasish, Anwar, Kauko, Tangri, Asish, Manvir, Sahal, Dimitri, Sadiku
Manager’s Talk:
“(Sadiku’s performance was) very good. We had the opportunity to (create and) have the chances. The good thing is that we have three strikers with the possibility to score goals. This is very important for our team because (it helps if) we have one player injured. A sending off and you have the opportunity to play with the other two. I’m very happy with Dimi(tri Petratos), Sadiku and Jason (Cummings),”
