ISL 2020-21: Odisha thump Kerala to register first win of the season

Image Source : TWITTER/ODISHA FC Odisha FC
Odisha FC obtained the monkey off their again as they cruised to their first win of the season with a 4-2 win over Kerala Blasters within the Indian Super League (ISL) on the GMC Stadium right here on Thursday.
Kerala drew first blood by way of Jordan Murray within the seventh minute however Odisha took the lead within the first half itself by way of an personal purpose from Jeakson Singh within the twenty second and a strike from Steven Taylor late within the half. Diego Mauricio’s second-half brace within the fiftieth and sixtieth minutes then settled the tie in favor of Odisha. Gary Hooper scored a comfort for Kerala within the 79th minute.

It was Odisha who began higher, implementing a nook within the third minute however Kerala scored the opener a lot in opposition to the run of play. KP Rahul headed Facundo Pereyra’s freekick at purpose and a diving Arshdeep Singh might solely parry it straight into Murray’s path. The latter made no mistake from a good angle.
Odisha struck again quarter-hour later in considerably fortuitous trend. Jerry Mawihmingthanga discovered Mauricio on the correct and his shot took a heavy deflection off Jeakson earlier than trickling previous a wrong-footed Albino Gomes.
Vicente Gomez nearly got here up with an on the spot equaliser as he headed in Pereyra’s cross, however it was straight at Arshdeep. Kerala would rue the misses quickly with Taylor making the most of some poor defending to offer Odisha the lead simply earlier than halftime. Jerry’s cross discovered Taylor unmarked on the far put up and the English defender calmly slotted in.

Full-Time: ARRIVED.#OdishaFC #AmaTeamAmaGame #HeroISL pic.twitter.com/x0A3vxukZZ— Odisha FC (@OdishaFC) January 7, 2021

Jerry missed a great likelihood straight after the restart, however Mauricio would quickly be sure that his miss went unpunished. First, he scored Odisha’s third after Jerry’s lob discovered him clear on purpose. Ten minutes later, he scored a spectacular purpose to place the consequence past doubt. The Brazilian obtained the ball from Nandhakumar Sekhar and beat a defender earlier than curling it previous the keeper from exterior the field.
Kerala would have a glimmer of hope within the 79th minute when Gary Hooper netted their second. Jordan Murray did nicely to place the ball within the field and located Hooper, who slashed at purpose. His shot took a deflection off Taylor earlier than entering into.
The purpose impressed the previously-downbeat Kerala gamers as they launched assault after assault on the Odisha purpose. However, the Odisha defence stood agency as their coach Stuart Baxter celebrated his first win of the season on the last whistle.