বাংলায় পড়ুন
Kerala Blasters played without sacked coach Rene Meulensteen after the club and coach mutually decided to part ways. Meulensteen was earlier assistant coach to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and was brought in to turn around the fortunes of last year’s finalists.
FC Pune started out brightly and kept finding inroads through the Kerala defense but could not get through to the final third. But with quarter of an hour into the first half, Jonatan Lucca cut in from the left and shot from the edge of the box which was cleared by Kerala goalkeeper Subhashish Roy. But on the 33rd minute, Marcelinho and Ashique Kuruniyan played lovely passing football between the both of them and then Marcelinho finished exquisitely.
After the first half, Kerala Blasters tried attacking with Lian Hume and Sifenos but could not make it count. But on the 73rd minute mark, substitute Keziron Kizito played a lovely through ball to Courage Pekuson who went through the left side of the field and passed the ball to Sifenos for him to finish calmly into the back of the net for the equalizing goal. The goal led to further attacks by Kerala Blasters and on the 85th minute, Hume stepped up for a free kick which was stopped by Pune City goalkeeper Vishal Kaith and on the 89th minute, Pekusons shot went inches off Kaith’s far post.
While both teams shared a point each, Kerala Blasters remained at eighth position and Pune City climbed to the top of the league table. Mark Sifenos from Kerala Blasters was awarded the Man of the match.
