ISL 2015: Entertaining 3-3 draw at Delhi as Kerala ends season

12/03/2015

Kerala Blasters and Delhi Dynamos played out an entertaining 3-3 draw at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi to finish Kerala’s season. Chris Dagnall, Joao Coimbra and Antonio German scored for the Blasters while Dos Santos, Adil Nabi and Sehnaj Singh got on the score sheet for the home team.

With the play-offs spot already secured, Delhi Dynamos coach Roberto Carlos made six changes to the side from the match against NorthEast United FC. Goalkeeper Subashish Roy, Serginho Greene, John Arne Riise, Shylo Mama, Dos Santos and Adil Nabi came into the starting line-up.

Terry Phelan also rung in changes to the Blasters side for the last game of the season with Cavin Lobo, Joao Coimbra, Ishfaq Ahmed, Mehtab Hossain, Rodrigo Arroz, Bruno Perone and Sandip Nandy coming into the team.

Delhi started the match in a positive fashion by dominating all the opening exchanges. The possession game found a way into the net in the seventh minute with Dos Santos opening the score for Delhi. Florent Malouda chipped a beautiful ball into the box and Dos Santos made a great run to get on the end of it to add the finishing touches.

Kerala levelled things up within minutes as Chris Dagnall pounced on a mistake by Anas to score his sixth goal of the season. Anas completely messed up his header and Dagnall found himself alone to slot the ball past Subhashish Roy.

Kerala slowly started dominating the game after the goal, and they almost went ahead in the 26 minute with Delhi goalkeeper Subhashish Roy punching a cross from Mehtab Hossain to his own net. However, the referee’s whistle saved Delhi the blushes, as he spotted a little bit of pushing in the box. The Men in Yellow finally went ahead in the 30 minute with Joao Coimbra curling a left foot ‘worldie’ into the top corner.

Delhi’s hopes of an easy home win seemed to be slipping away when Kerala went 3-1 up in the 39 minute. Antonio German took the ball down with his chest and shot a ferocious strike into the goal to send the Kerala fans into ruptures.

The lead, however, was cut back to one in a minute by Delhi as Adil Nabi turned up on the end of a cross from Mama to head the ball past Nandy. Kerala finished the forty five minutes leading 3-2 to end the roller-coaster half which saw a total of five goals.

Both teams started the second half cautiously trying to bring defensive solidity back into the game. Sergio Greene missed a good chance to equalize for Delhi in the 49 minute with Nandy colliding with his own defenders as the header went wide. Sniffing a chance, Delhi went into attack with Dos Santos as the focal point. Dos Santos came close to scoring his second of the match in the 85 minute with the Brazilian’s effort going agonisingly close.

With Delhi struggling to break down the Kerala defence, Roberto Carlos brought on Richard Gadze to swing the match in favour of the home team. The ploy almost worked in the 85 minute with Gadze through on goal with just the goalkeeper to beat. However, his tame shot at the onrushing Nandy let the keeper make an easy save.

The home team finally went on level with the Blasters in injury time as a 30-yard screamer from Sehnaj Singh found its way into the back of the net. With yet another late goal, Delhi continued their knack of scoring late goals – the seventh this season past the 80 minute. As the match finished 3-3 with both teams sharing points, Kerala moved out of the last spot to seventh in the league table.

Delhi will now play FC Goa in their last match of the season at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.