Odisha continue dream run

KOLKATA: For less than a minute on Sunday evening Kalinga Stadium descended into a partial darkness as one of the four floodlights went off just after the start of the Indian Super League match between Odisha FC and Hyderabad FC.

But the Juggernauts illuminated the field thereafter with their brand of attacking football under Sergio Lobera as they defeated the Nizams 3-0 with Roy Krishna scoring a double (35’, 90+4’) and Mourtada Fall (40’) adding one to his season’s tally.

The win helped the home team to fourth place on the table with 17 points from nine matches while the visitors remained winless in their 10 attempts.

In the 35th minute of the game just a touch from Krishna was enough to give the hosts a deserving lead. The move started with Isak Vanlalruatfela’s deft run near the left touchline and the Mizo winger’s long through ball found Amey Ranawade on the right.

The Odisha right-back did well to receive the ball near the goalline before pulling it back from a tight angle for an onrushing Krishna near the right post. With a Hyderabad defender in close pursuit, the Fijian striker managed a touch on the ball with his left foot before it took a bounce near the centre of the goal and went in at the bottom left corner.

With their nose ahead, the Kalinga Warriors upped the ante and were rewarded with the second goal just five minutes later. Centre-back Fall, who scored the all-important goal last Monday to send Odisha into their historic AFC Cup interzonal semifinal playoff, used his head again to double the lead for the home team.

The Senegalese towered over everyone in the Nizams’ defence to head home a headed assist by Carlos Delgado at the right post from close range. This time also, Vanlalruatfela was instrumental with a quick run with the ball before releasing a centre for Delgado near the left post. Odisha went into the breather with a 2-goal cushion and came back a determined lot to pile more misery on the bottom-placed Hyderabad.

The Juggernauts created a host of chances in the second half mainly through their pivotal midfield engine Ahmed Jahouh, whose contribution towards the team’s cause will be unjustified to measure only by counting the goals or assists.

However, they failed to shake the net until the dying minutes of the game when Krishna brought his second strike of the game four minutes into the second-half added time.

Diminutive Mizo winger Jerry Mawihmingthanga, who came on as a 62-minute substitute and wasted two golden opportunities, did all the hard work inside the area to fight for the possession and it fell to Krishna and the striker’s clinical left-footed grounder from right of box was inch-perfect to find the gap between right post and Hyderabad custodian Gurmeet Singh’s leg.

Chances came few and far between for Hyderabad, though they were the first to find a shot on target in the match. In the 25th minute Mohammed Yasir’s left-footed long ranger from outside the area was saved at the top centre by Odisha goalkeeper Amrinder Singh.


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