Oh, the drama of football! Kerala Blasters kept it very late in the match to win against FC Goa on Tuesday at the JLN Stadium in Kochi and in the process, bagged the double over Zico's men in ISL 2016. CK Vineeth's strike at the death gave the Sachin Tendulkar co-owned side all the three points against a nine-man FC Goa team.
The 2-1 win catapulted Kerala Blasters to the fourth position in the table. They now have three wins and 12 points from nine games. The knockouts spot is still very much alive.
The opening blood of the game was drawn by the away side as Rafael Coelho slotted home the first goal of the match for FC Goa in the 9th minute, following a great pass from Richarlyson Barbosa Felisbino. Everything was going good for Zico's men until the start of the second half when defender Gregory Arnolin was shown a direct red card for a deliberate hand ball inside the penalty box.
A penalty was awarded as a result and Kerala Blasters got the equaliser soon enough after Kervens Belfort perfectly scored from the penalty in the 48th minute.
As the game progressed, the physicality too increased and lots of yellow cards were being shown to players from both teams. In the 81st minute, FC Goa's Richarlyson picked up a second yellow and the already-depleted FC Goa team got weaker in terms of number of players present in the field.
With the number of players coming down for the away side, Kerala Blasters upped the ante and although Vineeth, returning after a dream of an AFC Cup 2016 campaign with Bengaluru FC, received a yellow card in the game, he kept it late to decorate the icing on the cake. Just seconds to go for the match to conclude, the Kerala footballer combined with defender Cedric Hengbart to slot the winning goal and help his side achieve the most dramatic of wins ever in the ISL.
