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NorthEast United hosted Kerala Blasters in their fourth home game of the season today in Guwahati. Before the start of the game, they had failed to win a single game at home, but that statistic changed and in some manner.
The game started at a brisk pace with both teams creating a few chances in the initial stages.
NorthEast had more number of opportunities, but it was Kerala who hit the post midway through the first half. NorthEast had a flurry of chances early on in the first half, but the Kerala defence stood firm to see off any danger that came through.
The teams went into the halftime break with the scoreboard reading 0-0. Kerala started attacking a bit more in the second half, and they were rewarded with a goal when Matej Poplatnik scored from a Zakeer corner to give Kerala Blasters the lead in the 73rd minute.
NorthEast United then threw everything they had at Kerala Blasters including the kitchen sink and finally managed to secure the equaliser through Bartholomew Ogbeche in the 92nd minute.
The Uruguayan striker, Juan Cruz Mascia, scored the winner for the Highlanders in the 96th minute to give Northeast United their first home victory of the season.
On that note, let's take a look at the 5 talking points from today's game
#5 Red Jersey lucky for NorthEast United FC?
Today was the second time in the league this season that NorthEast United came back from behind to win a game terrifically and the only thing common on both the occasions was the colour of the jersey.
While the first game was an away game against last season's champions Chennaiyin FC the next was today.
The reason why today's win was unique regarding the colour of the jersey is that it was a home game for NorthEast United FC and as we all know, white is the home jersey colour for them. But due to specific reasons, they chose to wear the red colour Jersey for the second time and it helped them break the jinx of not winning a home game this season.
The win today also bought back memories of the Chennaiyin game where NEUFC came back dramatically to secure the win.
The game of football is known to be a superstitious game and well seeing NEUFC perform wearing the red colour Jersey one is bound to wonder if the red coloured Jersey is actually lucky for them or not.
#4 Kerala's problem of conceding late goals continue to haunt them
For a coach the most heartbreaking stuff to see is his/her team concede two goals in injury time to lose a game which he/she was leading for 90 minutes. Kerala this season have faced such situations on multiple occasions.
In the game against Mumbai, they were leading and poised to gain three points but then a Pranjal Bhumij screamer happened to wash away their hopes.
Today it went a degree higher with Kerala conceding twice in added time to see the game go out of their grasps. A lose like this hampers the team spirit and motivation. Conceding two goals in injury time to lose a game and then move on takes a lot of character and the upcoming days will show us what sort of attitude this Kerala Blaster bunch have.
David James needs to address this issue that has plagued his side this season if they are to have any hopes of making it to the semi-finals.
#3 NEUFC's substitutes turn the game on its head
There is a saying in football that when a substitute does well then its the coach's credit, and well today one must credit the NorthEast United gaffer and his support staff for pulling off a masterclass regarding substitutions.
When his side went behind in the 73rd minute, Eelco Schattorie the NorthEast United coach bought on Juan Cruz Mascia in the 79th minute in place of Mislav Komorski a defender clearly showcasing his intentions of going all out in attack. Then in the 82nd minute, he bought on Nikhil Kadam in place of Redeem Tlang.
These two chances looked to take Kerala by surprise as both the new players hassled and harried their way past a resolute Kerala defence. Nikhil Kadam's late runs caused more than few problems for the three-man Kerala defence while the physical presence of the big man Juan Mascia was something that eventually paved the way for NorthEast United to grab all three points. It was Masica who was the leading man who helped NEUFC grab all three points by scoring the winning goal and winning the penalty.
Eelco will hope that his substitutes keep providing rewards till the end of the season.
#2 Sandesh Jhingan: Hero to Villain in six minutes
Sandesh Jhingan is without a doubt one of the best defenders India has produced in recent times. Today the Kerala captain was sublime till the 90th minute, but then the display board showed six minutes of added time, and the curse of the number six hit Jhingan hard.
He had a perfect game till that point of time, but due to reasons that one cant logically find out, he went on to push Juan Mascia inside the box even though the Uruguayan striker had his back towards goal. The resulting penalty paved the way for NorthEast United to script a perfect movie like comeback that will be remembered for many years to come by the Highlanders faithful.
A slight anomaly that football has is that generally and in most cases, it stands correct the Man of the Match is decided between the 85-88th minutes, but today was that one rare day when the Man of the Match goes from hero to villain in the remaining few minutes of the game.
Had Jhingan not lunged into that tackle that awarded NEUFC the penalty, Kerala Blasters would have gone home with all three points. Even during the second goal NEUFC scored, had Jhingan marked his man a bit better, the chance wouldn't have been created for Masica to score.
#1 NEUFC pull of a Machester United type three-minute comeback
People are very familiar with Manchester United's famous comeback victory to win the UEFA Champions League final in 1999 against Bayern Munich in Barcelona. NEUFC's win had shades of that historic comeback win that the Red Devils pulled off. Both the heroes of the two games Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Juan Cruz Mascia started the game from the bench. Both of them came into the game with around 10 minutes remaining. Both of them turned into heroes during the injury time.
Today after going back NEUFC threw everyone forward with the hope of salvaging at least a point. A confident Uruguayan striker named Juan Cruz Mascia had different ideas though.
He intelligently won a penalty from Sandesh Jhingan by forcing the Indian defender to push him while going for the ball. Bartholomew Ogbeche made no mistake to give NorthEast United the equaliser from the spot, the watch showed that 90+3 minutes had been played and three more minutes of added time remained. If NEUFC needed a winning goal, it had to come at that very next moment.
The clock struck 90+5 and people were leaving the stadium content with a point, but then lightning named Masica struck. The striker hit a volley from the outside of his foot with full power to beat Dheeraj all ends up to give NorthEast United the three points and complete one of the best comeback victories of ISL history. The winning goal that NEUFC scored will also be one of the contenders for the goal of the season.
Seeing the similarities between the comeback victory that United had against Bayern, and the one NUEFC pulled off against Kerala Blasters one can claim that Eelco Schattorie just made a Sir Alex Ferguson type comeback.
