ISL: Kerala Blasters sneaks past Jamshedpur to continue winning run

JAMSHEDPUR: Dimitrios Diamantakos struck for the fourth time in as many games to give Kerala Blasters a narrow 1-0 win over Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Sunday.

The Red Miners will feel they could have been better as the Blasters nabbed four ISL wins on the trot for the first time in its history.

The host made four changes to the side that lost to East Bengal FC. Eli Sabia replaced Pratik Chaudhary in defence. Farukh Choudhary, Ritwik Das, and 19-year-old Phijam Singh came into the midfield, replacing Sekh Sahil, Jitendra Singh, and Harry Sawyer. The visitor fielded the same team that beat Hyderabad FC two weeks ago.

The game got off to a cagey start, but Blasters eventually took the lead in the 16th minute. From a free kick, Adrian Luna lobbed the ball towards Diamantakos at the far post. Poor defending from Jamshedpur FC allowed the unmarked Greek striker to get on the end of it and carefully side-footed the ball home from close range.

Luna was menacing in midfield, but Jamshedpur FC was the one that came very close to levelling the game in the 37th minute. Striker Jay Thomas, who was deployed as a holding midfielder in this game, slid the ball into the box to Das before the midfielder saw his goal-bound shot pushed away by Prabhsukhan Gill at full stretch.

In the second half, quite a few opportunities presented themselves but the Red Miners failed to keep them on target. Out of nine goal attempts, Das’ first-half shot was the only one Jamshedpur FC kept on target.

Substitute Ishan Pandita came on and scuffed his effort from range at the hour-mark before Daniel Chukwu’s header from Thomas’ out-swinging corner was inches above the crossbar less than ten minutes later.

RESULT: Jamshedpur 0 lost to Kerala Blasters 1 (Diamantakos 17)