Welcome to Sportstar's highlights of this evening's Kerala Blasters vs NorthEast United FC Indian Super League (ISL 2021-22) clash being played at the Tilak Maidan Stadium in Goa, India.
That was all for the night. We will be back tomorrow when . Thanks for tuning in tonight and take very good care of yourselves.
Match Report:
Updated Points Table:
Post Match Comments:
Full-Time
Kerala Blasters 2-1 NorthEast United
A late goal by Irshad was not enough as two timely goals by Vukomanovic's men saw Kerala Blasters secure a clean victory to cut the margin to top of the table to three points.
90+5' GOOOOOOOOAALLLL!!!! Irshad pulls one back for NEUFC, but its may be too little too late
KBFC 2-1 NEUFC
90' KBFC's corner kick is cleared away by the NEUFC defence this time, but the men in yellow can almost sense their job is done for the night.
88' The morale of the NEUFC goalkeeper is very evident and that is not a positive sign for NEUFC. If KBFC wins this, which is almost sealed, this will be its first win since February 2018.
82' GOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!!!!!! KBFC doubles its lead with Vazquez scoring an absolute stunner from his own team's half
KBFC 2-0 NEUFC
80' Substitution for NEUFC! Deshorn Brown is finally getting on to the pitch as he replaces Marko Sahanek
74' Another yellow card! Lakra gets into the book for a reckless challenge on Diaz and we get into a cooling break.
70' Red Card! Ayush fouls Hernan Santana and he gets his second yellow to reduce KBFC to 10-men
68' Marcelinho makes a run into the KBFC box, but Hormipam makes a last minute tackle to avert the danger and the corner tha follows has Leskovic clear the ball away
67' Yellow Card! Diaz gets into the book this time with a rash challenge on Hernan Santana
62' GOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!! Diaz puts KBFC in front with his head as the NEUFC defence's gaps are exploited well by the men in yellow through combination play
KBFC 1-0 NEUFC
61' Chance! A long throw for KBFC which falls for Luna, but his header is just whiskers away from goal with the NEUFC keeper just watching the ball
56' Diaz gets the ball from the midfield and as he tries to cut into the box, Mashoor makes a last minute challenge to avert the danger
55' Yellow Card! Subhasish goes into the book and in spite of protests from NEUFC players, the referee is not interested for any change
52' Sahanek makes a run in the midfield and feeds in a long ball into the box, but Khabra clears the ball for a corner. Suhair heads the ball in from the corner, but it is well-off target
50' Ayush gets the ball in front of the box, and instead of passing the ball for Luna or Vazquez, he goes for goal and Vukomanovic is furious
48' Shot! Santana takes the free-kick, but the ball is well off-target
47' Yellow Card! Ayush gets into the book for a rather rough challenge on Marcelinho
46' No changes for both coaches at half-time, though Brown was seen warming up. Khalid Jamil will be cautious with him, especially post the hamstring injury
Second Half Begins! Kerala Blasters continues in its pursuit to find a win against NorthEast United FC after over four years, while NEUFC will look to avoid a loss and that itself will help it climb a spot and leave the last place in the ISL table.
Half-Time
Kerala Blasters 0-0 NorthEast United
NorthEast United, in spite of looking the more dangerous side in this half, could not keep a goal in the net as the sides remained deadlocked at 0-0 at the end of the first half.
45+3' Suhair's long throw on the other end is headed out of danger by KBFC and as Mashoor tries to get the ball back into the box for NEUFC, the boys in yellow march forward and eventually foul Suhair
45' KBFC tries to go in the attack in the last minute of regulation time of the first half, but Diallo clears the ball away
42' Off the woodwork! Luna's corner kick is headed towards the goal by Jeakson, but the goal-post denies KBFC a goal as the match remains deadlocked
40' Poor play by Marcelinho in the circumstances after he passed the ball for Suhair, but failed to receive it seconds later. Sahanek is then passes the ball by Suhair, but he was just too wide
37' Shot! Sahanek takes the corner and though the ball is passe sright in front of the keeper, it is cleared away by the KBFC defence. But it falls for Santana, who goes for a shot in the top right corner of the net, only to miss the target
34' Off-side! KBFC tries to go on the attack, but Vazquez is ruled off-side, putting the attack to bed
33' As the match resumes after the cooling break, NEUFC is back on the attack with a long ball for Joe, but KBFC intercepts it.
31' Time for a cooling break!
31' Shot! Diaz releases Sahal and then passes the ball to him, who makes a run along the right and crosses the ball for Ayush, who shoots. but a deflection gives KBFC a corner, which is eventually met by Hormipam off-target
30' We have reached the first half-an-hour of the match and it is the KBFC defence that has been the busier of the two
28' Shot! Marcelinho gets the ball from Santana and goes for goal from outside the box. The shot is off-target, but he applauds the build-up and gets on
26' Marcelinho, Gurjinder pair up to create an attack and Marcelinho passes it for Mashoor, just when KBFC tracks back. Sahanek takes the ball on the follow up to earn a corner, which is headed away from danger by Diaz
23' Nishu Kumar tries to feed in another cross from the left flank, but it was just too much for Sahal, whose head misses the ball as it goes out for a goal kick
21' Irshad tries to create an attack along the flanks, but Sahal blocks it and Vazquez makes a run with the ball along the left, but his cross sees the referee reward a foul to NEUFC for a challenge on Santana
17' Hernan gives a long ball for Marcelinho, who crosses the ball into the box for suhair, but the Indian forward is just a few yards away as Gill clears the ball out of danger
15' Yellow Card! Gogoi tries to get the ball, but catches Luna in the process and gets the first booking of the night
13' Nishu chases the ball that was crossed in from the corner, but Santana blocks it as teh ball is cleared away eventually
12' Vazquez tries to go for goal from tehn midfield, but the NEUFC wall has the spaces covered and the ball is deflected away for a corner.
9' Chance for NEUFC! Suhair gets the ball from the right flank, lands the ball well using his chest, but his shot was just off target. NorthEast United getting into attack eventually in the game.
8' Nishu tries to feed the ball into the opposition box for KBFC, but Subhasish takes control of it comfortably to get the ball back into play
5' Chance! Diaz plays the ball into the box as Ayush robs the ball form NEUFC defence to pass it to Sahal, but Sahal's cross is not on target as the ball goes out for a goal kick
3' Nishu Kumar crosses the ball into the NEUFC box, which is cleared away by Diallo and soon Sahanek is fouled. The free kick that followed too much for Suhair.
2' Kerala Blasters is enjoying early position as NEUFC tries to cut spaces along the flanks
7:30 pm: Kick off!
The math begins with Kerala Blasters starting from left to right while NorthEast United FC starts from the other end.
7:26 pm: The players are out on the field and have taken their positions for the exciting clash after the National Anthem of India and the toss.
7:00 pm: Kerala Blasters has not been able to beat NorthEast United FC for over four years now. When the two sides last met early on this season, the match ended with a 1-1 draw.
Read the highlights here: NorthEast United vs Kerala Blasters Highlights
6:32 pm: Starting Line-ups are out!
Kerala Blasters Starting XI: Prabhsukhan Gill (GK), Nishu Kumar, Ruivah Hormipam, Marko Leskovic, Ayush Adhikari, Harmanjot Khabra, Sahal Samad, Adrian Luna, Jeakson Singh, Jorge Diaz, Alvaro Vazquez.
NorthEast United FC Starting XI: Subhasish Roy (GK), Mohamed Irshad, Mashoor Shereef, Zakaria Diallo, Gurjinder Kumar,Joe Zoherliana, Hernan Santana, Pragyan Gogoi, Marco Sahanek, Suhair Vadakkepeedika and Marcelo Pereira.
6:15 pm: Head-to-Head: Kerala Blasters and NorthEast United have faced each other 15 times and KBFC has won five of them and NEUFC has won four, while six matches have ended in a draw.
6:00 pm: Here's how we think the two sides would line up for the match:
Kerala Blasters Predicted XI: Prabhsukhan Gill (GK), Nishu Kumar, Ruivah Hormipam, Marko Leskovic, Lalthathanga Khawlhring, Harmanjot Khabra (C), Sahal Samad, Adrian Luna, Jeakson Singh, Jorge Diaz, Alvaro Vazquez.
NorthEast United FC Predicted XI: Subhasish Roy (C) (GK), Provat Lakra, Patrick Flottmann, Zakaria Diallo, Gurjinder Kumar, Mohamed Irshad, Imran Khan, Sehnaj Singh, Marco Sahanek, Suhair Vadakkepeedika and Marcelo Pereira.
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MATCH PREVIEW
After a loss in the last game, against Bengaluru FC, Kerala Blasters FC gets a nice chance to get back to winning ways as it takes on lowly NorthEast United in the Indian Super League at Vasco's Tilak Maidan on Friday.
Returning to the league after being in COVID isolation for more than a fortnight, the Blasters boys gave a fighting display against Bengaluru. And the side will look to collect full points against NorthEast which is currently last in the 11-team league table and which has lost nine of the 15 games it has played so far this season including a 5-0 loss to Hyderabad FC in its last game.
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But head coach Ivan Vukomanovic has many other things to think over as the Blasters will have to play seven games in the next one month as per the revised ISL schedule.
“From our side, we need to take care about the health and the medical status of the players. Because we want them to go through February, through all those games, well. Probably, we will rotate a couple of players, giving some of them time and space to recover,” said Vukomanovic.
Meanwhile, NorthEast head coach Khalid Jamil made it clear that thinking about the big loss in the last game will not help.
“We are focusing on tomorrow's game. We are not thinking about the heavy defeat in the last game,” he said.
The Blasters are definitely a good team and doing well this season. But one good point is we have all the players with us now. So we should do good and we are ready for this match.”
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