Sealing it: Peprah’s 88th-minute winner gave Blasters their first points of the season.
| Photo Credit: Thulasi Kakkat
Kwame Peprah had been injured for a good part of last season and even during his stay on the field he had been living in Dimitrios Diamantakos’ shadow. On Sunday, the young Ghanaian stole the thunder from Diamantakos, the ISL top scorer last year, as he scored a late match-winner that gave Kerala Blasters a 2-1 victory over East Bengal FC at the Nehru Stadium here.
Peprah had come in just 13 minutes earlier, replacing the team’s star forward Jesus Jimenez. The victory was Blasters’ first this season and the winning goal came rather dramatically.
K.P. Rahul sent a cross from the left and Anwar Ali appeared ready to kick away the danger but Mohammed Aimen stole it with a smart slide and sent it to Peprah who fired it home with a left-footer.
P.V. Vishnu, a 22-year-old from Kasargod, had given EBFC the lead in the 59th minute and Noah Sadaoui, the recent Durand Cup’s Golden Boot winner, had netted Blasters’ equaliser in the 63rd.
After the dismal season-opener against Punjab FC, Blasters coach Mikael Stahre had spoken about putting a lot of players higher up and that saw a lively match this evening.
Despite having two men guarding him, EBFC’s Diamantakos looked dangerous as he ran into the box and foxed goalkeeper Sachin Suresh with a smart cross to his right which Vishnu tapped in neatly. But Sadaoui was quick to level the scores, racing in from the left, dodging a defender and finding the net with a nice shot to the far corner.
The result: KBFC 2 (Sadaoui 63, Peprah 88) bt EBFC 1 (Vishnu 59).
Published – September 23, 2024 12:53 am IST
