Kerala Blasters continued its winning form in its away venture to beat the home favourite East Bengal 2-1 in an ISL-10 fixture here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.
Daisuke Sakai and Dimitrios Diamantakos struck once in each half for the Blasters while Cleiton Silva, who fluffed two penalties earlier in the game, struck from the spot late in the injury time to pull one back for the hosts.
The Blasters played the final 11 minutes and the added time with 10 men after Diamantakos was ejected in the 89th minute when he received his second booking for removing his shirt after scoring the goal.
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Kerala Blaster showed the right intent and organization in the opening session and was rewarded for it when Daisuke Sakai put the visitor in the lead. The Blasters launched a speedy counter attack and Adrian Luna, true to his wont, played a nice through pass to find the Japanese striker, who beat his marker with a step-over and finished the ball past a diving East Bengal goalkeeper Prabhsukhan Singh Gill.
East Bengal had a few chances to equalize in the second half, where it played really well. But the goal never came its way even between the 83 and 85 minutes when the Blasters goalkeeper Sachin Suresh denied Cleiton twice when the East Bengal’s Brazilian forward had two chances to score from the spot. Suresh’s first save was invalidated as he moved out of the line before the shot.
But the Blasters’ goalkeeper showed the right anticipation once again to stop Cleiton, as the latter retook the penalty. Diamantakos made it 2-0 for the Blasters in the 88th minute to take the game away from East Bengal. Cleiton finally got his goal, from the spot yet again in the 90+7 minute, but seemed to come a bit too late for East Bengal.
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