Goals from debutants Matej Poplatnik and Slavisla Stojanovic sealed the tie for the Kerala Blasters FC against ATK at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium. After a goalless first half, Matej broke the tie with a 77-minute header to beat Arindam Bhattacharya.
The hopes of the hosts to make an equalizer were dashed by a curler from Stojanovic. David James’ men had a clear upper hand in the match against Steve Coppell’s ATK, as the latter were not in the picture. The Kerala team had more possession and won more corners showing their dominance in the game.
In the first half also Kerala created some good chances and was close to scoring but the biggest chance of the half was for ATK in the 39th minute, where Jayesh Rane missed a good chance to go ahead.
