Halicharan Narzary produced the all important goal in the second half as Kerala Blasters downed ATK by a solitary goal in the Indian Super League fixture here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.
In an ill-tempered match, ATK coach Antonio Habas was sent off following a melee between both sets of players and coaching staff as Blasters held their nerve to collect three points.
Eelco Schattorie's men started off strongly and enjoyed more ball possession but could not reap its reward as the attacking duo of Bartholomew Ogbeche and Raphael Messi Bouli struggled to find the goal route.
ATK had its first good opportunity in the 11th minute when Roy Krishna launched a nice counter-attack after intercepting a corner and ran all the way to Blasters’ box. Blasters wing-back Mohammad Rakip did well catching up to the ATK striker to thwart the threat.
Krishna had another chance 35th minute when he sent a stinging half-volley off a Javier Hernandez free-kick. However, Ogbeche made a desperate lunge to block the effort. Balwant Singh, who started in place of the injured David Williams, glanced a header wide soon after the restart.
One moment of laxity from the ATK defence in the 70th minute opened up the opportunity for Blasters and Narzary made the most of it with a rasping drive to keeper Arindam Bhattacharya. Blasters had another chance in the 84th minute but Messi Bouli’s header was saved by Arindam.
The result:
ATK 0 lost to Kerala Blasters 1 (Halicharan Narzary 70).
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