Juan Ferrando’s men as they managed to claw their way back from a goal down in the opening minutes of the game in front of a boisterous Kerala Blasters home crowd to turn things around in dramatic fashion at the end of 90 minutes in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. | Serie A: Inter Milan Beat Salernitana 2-0 to Continue Revival The home team started on the front foot and drew first blood as Ivan Kaliuzhnyi found the net after Sahal Samad played a good ball in for the Ukrainian to poke the ball past the keeper.
The Blasters could have had more as they put the visitors under immense pressure and kept knocking at the mariners’ door, but the team from Kolkata did not give up despite being outplayed in the initial phase of the game and managed to go into the lead before the halftime whistle with goals coming from Dimitri Petratos and Joni Kauko. Ferrando’s side came out after the break and were determined to hol on to the lead they had worked so hard for. And much to the delight of the travelling fans, the Bengal-based team added to their tally after Australian Petratos notched up his second goal of the night to make it 1-3 in favour of the visitors before a Vishal Kaith howler gave the Blasters some hope in the nervy late minutes of the game.
Rahul Praveen beat a defender on the wing as he pushed the ball one way and ran the other around the hapless defender and went for an optimistic shot that found its way into the net after a moment of embarassment from the experienced Kaith. It was a terrible lapse of judgement from the seasoned keeper Kaith as he failed to collect the ball and let it roll between his legs after the spills. But, things took an ugly turn for the home team as the mariners notched up two more strikes in quick succession as Lenny Rodrigues’ 88th-minute sails took the wind out of the Blastrs’ sails before Petratos capped off a memorable night for himself and his team with another goal in added time to complete his treble against the mighty Kerala Blasters in their own backyard. The game ended 2-5 in favour of the mariners who managed to maintain their unbeaten record against the team from Kerala.