ATK Mohun Bagan ran riot over the Kerala Blasters defence as they picked up three points away from home in comfortable fashion. Australian centre-forward Dimitri Petratos was the architect of the Mohun Bagan victory, as he scored a hat-trick and registered an assist against the finalists of the inaugural season of the tournament.
Petratos was simply unplayable on the day, and was wonderfully supported by the other members of the Mohun Bagan attack, including Liston Colaco and Hugo Boumous, who got a combined three assists.
Facing the ATK Mohun Bagan side at home in the Jawaharlal Nehru International stadium in Kochi, KBFC opened the scoring in the early minutes through Ukrainian striker Ivan Kaliuzhnyi.
It was an excellent finish from the Blasters forward after Sahal Samad supplied a dangerous ball in. Mohun Bagan struck back almost immediately with two goals as the scoreboard read 2-1 at the half-time whistle.
It was in the second half that Mohun Bagan completely took the game away from their counterparts, as Dimitri Petratos looked dangerous from the very beginning. Having already scored a goal in the first half, the Australian was threatening the Kerala defence with his forward runs, getting into good positions.
It did not take long for him to find the back of the net once again. Colaco created a scoring opportunity for Petratos took to pounce, putting the ball into the bottom right corner in the 62nd minute.
Kerala Blasters seemed to come back into the contest as 19 minutes later, Rahul Praveen shot from an extremely tight angle to find the back of the net. His strike set up an exciting conclusion to the game, which involved three goals in the final ten minutes. Mohun Bagan scored two goals in the dying moments of the game to secure victory, both of which had Petratos involved.
The Aussie assisted Lenny Rodrigues to confirm the result and added another himself in stoppage time to complete his hat trick. The Bengal side’s victory comes as a much-needed one, taking them to fifth in the league table. Kerala Blasters, meanwhile, occupy seventh spot in the standings.
