Kerala Blasters keep semi-final hopes alive by beating Chennaiyin 3-0 in Southern Derby
Kerala Blasters kept their semi-final hopes alive by registering a 3-0 triumph in Southern Derby against Chennaiyin, in ‘Match 102’ of the 2021-22 Indian Super League season. Jorge Pereyra Diaz netted a brace, whilst the other goal was scored by Adrian Luna.
Kerala Blasters head coach Ivan Vukomanovic made three changes to the team that lost 2-1 against Hyderabad. Having served his one-game suspension, Diaz was reinstated in the starting XI at Chencho Gyeltshen’s expense. Besides that, Ruivah Hormipam and Vincy Barretto came in for Bijoy Varghese and Sahal Abdul Samad respectively.
On the other hand, Chennaiyin interim head coach Syed Subir Pasha fielded a new-look team, making six tweaks to the starting XI that lost 4-1 against Jamshedpur. Vishal Kaith, Edwin Sydney Vanspaul, Germanpreet Singh, Jobby Justin, Jerry Lalrinzuala, and Lukasz Gikiewicz came in place of Debjit Majumder, Reagan Singh, Ariel Borysiuk, Ninthoinganba Meetei, Slavko Damjanovic, and Nerijus Valskis respectively.
The Tuskers dominated the early proceedings, without being able to breach the Marina Machans’ defense. In fact, the first big opportunity of the game fell to Chennaiyin in the 29th minute. A Vladimir Koman cross from the left flank found Jobby in space inside the box, but his header was off-target.
Vukomanovic’s team came close to scoring in the 38th minute when Luna played out a pass for Alvaro Vazquez from a freekick. The Spaniard darted down the right flank before delivering a low cross for Diaz, who somehow failed to complete the simplest of tasks of pushing the ball into an empty net.
The exhibition of missed chances continued as barely four minutes later, a floated delivery from the left by Jerry Lalrinzuala found Jobby in space once again. The end result, however, was similar, as the Kerala lad failed to find the back of the net.
The Tuskers were much more clinical in the second half and took only seven minutes from the resumption to break the deadlock. Harmanjot Khabra played a long ball from the deep for Luna, who then headed it towards Diaz’s path as the Platense loanee was unmarked. Having missed a sitter previously, Diaz redeemed himself by tucking his opportunity home.
With one came another, as Vukomanovic’s team doubled their lead only three minutes later. The lion’s share of credit for this goal should be given to Sanjeev Stalin who made a run down the left flank and got the better of Narayan Das and Deepak Devrani with his skills before pulling the trigger. His effort struck the crossbar, and to be fair to Diaz, he did well to be at the right place and at the right time to score from the rebound.
In the 71st minute, Mirlan Murzaev went for glory from a long way out but his shot missed the target by a whisker. Kerala then got a chance of scoring their third in the 84th minute when one substitute in Sahal found another substitute in Chenco inside the box with a backheel, but just as when the Bhunatese attacker was about to pull the trigger, Narayan put in a fantastic tackle to shot the shot.
Adrian Luna scored the third goal for Kerala Blasters
However, it did not make much of a difference as the Tuskers eventually got their third goal of the night in the 90th minute. Vukomanovic’s side was awarded a freekick from quite a distance away from the goal, but instead of putting in a cross, Luna attempted an audacious knuckle-ball strike. His shot wrongfooted Kaith before nestling into the back of the net.
Kerala Blasters remain in the fifth position in the standings with this result, but more importantly, only one point separates them and the fourth-placed Mumbai City. Incidentally, they will now take on the Islanders themselves on Wednesday in a match that could be called a virtual quarter-final, whilst eighth-placed Chennaiyin will play their last match of the season against ATK Mohun Bagan on Thursday.