Kerala Blasters 5-1 Hyderabad FC: 3 reasons why Eelco Schattorie's men ran riot to post their second victory | ISL 2019-20
Kerala Blasters finally managed to register their second win of the season by blowing Hyderabad FC by a 5-1 margin at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. Even though it was Hyderabad FC who opened the scoring, Kerala Blasters stormed back with five goals which also included a brace from Bartholomew Ogbeche.
In the first 10-12 minutes, both teams failed to maintain possession for more than ten seconds but Hyderabad FC made the breakthrough in the 14th minute when Abhishek Halder released Marcelinho with an amazing through ball. The Brazilian winger was left free in the box and he made a simple pass to his compatriot Bobo who tapped it in past a hapless TP Rehenesh.
However, an injury to key Hyderabad defender Rafa Lopez in the 33rd minute opened the floodgates for Kerala Blasters as a slew of mistakes from the visitors' defenders and goal-keeper Laxmikant Kattimani saw the home side go into the half-time break with a scoreline of 3-1.
Seityasen Singh and Raphael Messi Bouli added two more goals in the 59 and 75th minutes respectively to round off a completely one-sided fixture which saw Kerala Blasters moving onto the 7th spot with 11 points.
#3 Kerala Blasters efficiency in the final third
Although Rafa Lopez's injury did help Kerala Blasters to find more space in Hyderabad's half, credit also needs to be given to Kerala's delivery from the wide areas and more importantly their finishing.
While the likes of Prasanth Karuthadathkuni and Halicharan Narzary have often been wasteful with their crosses, the latter along with Seityasen Singh were very impressive in this aspect of the game against Hyderabad FC.
After Seityasen delivered a threatening cross after indulging in a nice short corner-kick routine for Kerala's second goal which was tapped in by Vlatko Drobarov, Holicharan Narzary also took a simple decision to just roll the ball between Hyderabad FC's defenders and goal-keeper Laxmikant Kattimani in order to gift an easy goal for the prolific Raphael Messi Bouli.
Another goal which exhibited Kerala's or more particularly Messi Bouli's hard-work was the 5th and final goal which was entirely made by the Cameroonian. It was a normal goal-kick from TP Rehenesh which started off the move as Messi Bouli ran rings around Matthew Kilgallon inside the 18-yard-box to put the goal on a plate for Bart Ogbeche. After giving it all to win the initial aerial duel, Messi Bouli seemed to have slipped after trying to dribble past the Englishman Kilgallon but he still managed to somehow flick the ball to Ogbeche while being on the ground. This desire and willingness to make good decisions proved to be the difference between the two sides on the night.
Kerala also made use of these chances to put five past the helpless Hyderabad team. With eight shots on target as compared to Hyderabad's two, Kerala's forward troubled Laxmikant Kattimani on more occasions and reaped the rewards for that.