ISL: Roy Krishna brace steers ATK to top of table

ATK rode on goals from Roy Krishna and Edu Garcia to hand Jamshedpur FC a 3-0 thrashing and climb to the top of the Indian Super League table.

Roy Krishna celebrates scoring during ATK's 3-0 win over Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League (ISL 2019-20) on Sunday.

Roy Krishna  struck a fine brace as  ATK  cruised to a 3-0 win over  Jamshedpur FC  in the  Indian Super League  on Sunday.

Edu Garcia also got on the score sheet as ATK claimed its ninth win of the season to climb to the top of the ISL 2019-20 table. FC Goa is level on points with ATK but is second owing to an inferior goal difference. Jamshedpur, on the other hand, has 16 points from 14 games and remains in the seventh spot.

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ATK came out all guns blazing and broke the deadlock just two minutes into the game. The visitor's high-voltage start was rewarded when an under-pressure Sandip Mandi, who was making his ISL debut, played a weak back pass to Memo Moura. Krishna was alert to the situation and intercepted the loose pass, charged towards the goal and slotted it past  Subrata Paul  with ease.

Paul nearly gave away another goal when he erred while trying to play out from the back. The goalkeeper tried to take a touch and clear the ball after collecting a back-pass from Memo but only managed to find Krishna. This time though, the striker sent his effort straight back at the 'keeper.

It was one-way traffic in the first half as ATK continued to mount pressure on the Jamshedpur defence. In the 26th minute, Edu outfoxed his marker and got into a one-on-one position with Paul but the veteran custodian raced off his line and produced a crucial save.

Jamshedpur went into the interval with a one-goal deficit but the restart saw the side suffer a massive blow as Jitendra Singh was sent off for a second successive yellow card. Reduced to 10-men, the home side struggled to contain the potent ATK attack.

Edu, who was ATK's creative fulcrum through the first half, turned up at the end of a fine counter-attacking move to double his team's lead close to the hour-mark. The Spanish midfielder initiated the counter by finding Krishna ahead of him and then charged into the box to receive the striker's cushioned return and finished into the net with aplomb.

The Spaniard returned the favour as he set up Krishna with 15 minutes left on the clock. Prabir Das played it to Edu, who released a fine through ball for Krishna to bury past Paul. There was little Jamshedpur could thereon as it slipped to its fifth loss in six matches.