KOCHI: Kerala Blasters spoiled Chennaiyin FC’s Abde Nasser El Khayati's birthday party as the home side registered a 2-1 comeback win over the visitors at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium on Tuesday.
The match couldn’t have begun in a better fashion for birthday boy El Khayati as he gave Chennaiyin the lead in the second minute. But Blasters made a strong comeback with goals from Adrian Luna (38) and Rahul KP (64) to snatch a memorable comeback win.
The loss puts a huge dent to Chennaiyin's playoff hopes. They now need to win all their remaining matches and hope for the results in other matches to go their way to qualify for the playoffs.
On the other hand, the Blasters need just three more points to confirm a spot in the playoffs.
Chennaiyin went ahead even before the fans were settling in the stands. But more than the brilliance of the midfielder El Khayati, celebrating his 34th birthday on Tuesday, it was the lack of communication between two Blasters’ centre-backs, Hormipam and Victor Mongil, which led to the goal. Petar Sliskovic passed the ball to El Khayati, who was at the edge of the box. He rolled the ball towards his left to create space for himself between the two centre-backs and then took a quick shot to find the back of the net leaving comeback man Prabsukhan Gill in Blasters’ goal a mute spectator.
After that, it was the home side that dominated the game. With Adrian Luna and Rahul KP making quick runs along the wings, Blasters kept on maintaining the pressure inside the Chennaiyin box.
Blasters' continuous attempts to find the equalizer bore fruit in the 38th minute with Luna scoring a stunner. Chennaiyin skipper Anirudh Thapa's attempt to clear the ball from the Chennaiyin box was in vain as his clearance fell to Luna. The midfielder struck a superbly placed kick from the edge of the box to beat Chennaiyin goalkeeper Samik Mitra to draw the scores level.
In the 64th minute, Luna received a quick throw-in from Nishu Kumar and he found Rahul inside the box with a low cross. Though the Chennaiyin box was crowded, none of them could stop Rahul from producing Blasters’ winner.
