Pedro Gusmao celebrates in front of the home crowd after netting Kerala Blasters' second goal against Atletico de Kolkata in Kochi on Friday. Josekutty Panackal Kochi: Hosts Kerala Blasters recorded a 2-1 win over Atletico de Kolkata in the Indian Super League (ISL) here on Friday.
Despite the defeat, Kolkata stay on second position with 16 points while Blasters kept their third position intact with 15 points from 10 games.
The game ended on a controversial note as Kolkata captain Luis Garcia's injury time equaliser was disallowed by assistant referee.
Down 1-2, Kolkata's Jofre kept a cross-field ball from the left flank which Ethiopian striker Fikru Tefera headed for an unmarked Garcia and the former Liverpool player smashed it home.
But to his horror he saw the assistant referee disallowing the goal where as TV replays showed that ball had crossed the goalline.
Iain Hume celebrates with team-mates after scoring Kerala Blasters' opening goal. Josekutty Panackal
It was a match that Blasters dominated in the first half as they scored through their Canadian striker Iain Hume in the 4th minute and left-winger Pedro Gusmao in the 42nd minute.
Fikru pulled one back in the 55th minute, but it was more due to a faulty clearance on the part of opposition captain Cedric Hengbart.
The match started with Fikru wasting a golden opportunity as early as the second minute when he had all the time in the world to beat Blasters custodian David James, but his side volley didn't have enough punch to beat a diving former England World Cupper. Within two minutes, it was Hume, the former striker of English Championship (Division I) team Fleetwood Town, who hit back through counter attack. It was Pedro who made Baljit Sahni chase shadows essaying a lovely chip from wide left.
The defence formation of Kolkata was all jumbled up with custodian Subhasish Roy Chowdhury indecisive about coming out of his charge. The ball was slotted home by Hume and Stephen Pearson standing on goalline cleverly jumped to let the ball enter the net as a touch from him would have ruled it as off-side.
Pedro scored the second goal for his team when Sandesh Jhingan's inswinging left-footed cross from the right flank saw Milagres Gonsalves failing to head the ball, but both Sahni and Arnab Mondal were out of position as the Brazilian scored his first goal in the league.
Having been outsmarted in the first half, Kolkata's attack did have some sting after the change of ends once Garcia came in place of Arnal Lilbert.
His assists and clever positioning did put Blasters in a bit of trouble, but they held on well in front of a capacity crowd.
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