Dimitrios Diamantakos watched painfully from the bench as the Kerala Blasters kept missing one chance after another. And when he came in, just before the hour mark, the Greek forward appeared to be in a hurry. He scored the equaliser that brought back the home side back to life. And some 20 minutes later, Adrian Luna produced a beauty that saw the Blasters defeat Odisha 2-1 in the Indian Super League at the Nehru Stadium here on Friday night.
It was a happy return for Blasters’ head coach Ivan Vukomanovic who was back in the dugout after completing his 10-match ban. The victory also saw the home side jump from the fifth spot to second in the league ladder.
After scoring a goal minutes after his arrival, tapping in a nice cross from the left from Daisuke Sakai, Diamantakos almost scored another moments later but his attempt was smartly saved by the Odisha goalkeeper Amrinder Singh. And then came the match-winner from Luna, who is now turning to be the team’s hero in every game. The captain grabbed a mispass from an Odisha player and sent a curling longranger from the right that beat the goalkeeper hollow.
While the Blasters messed up nearly half dozen chances in the first half, Odisha striker Diego Mauricio was a picture of confidence.
He was strong and fast and kept troubling the defence. But the Brazilian, who scored the team’s lone goal making good use of a defence-splitting pass from Stephen Goddard in the 15th minute, also missed a penalty later as Blasters’ goalkeeper Sachin Suresh came up with a decisive save.
The result: Kerala Blasters 2 (Diamantakos 66, Luna 84) bt Odisha FC 1(Mauricio 15).
