BAMBOLIM, 23 Feb: Hyderabad FC qualified for their maiden semifinals with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Kerala Blasters in an entertaining Indian Super League match here on Wednesday.
\nBartholomew Ogbeche got Hyderabad in front in the 28th minute with Javier Siverio doubling the margin in the 87th minute to make it 35 points from 18 games and stay firmly in pole position.
\nKerala fought hard with Alvaro Vazquez at the heart of their second-half stellar show but in the end, Hyderabad held firm with Laxmikant Kattimani doing the job at the goal for Manolo Marquez\u2019s side.
\nVincy Barretto scored a consolation goal for Kerala in stoppage time but it was too little too late by then. The result meant Kerala stay in fifth place with 27 points from 17 outings, with Mumbai only a point above them at fourth.
\nKerala replaced Jorge Pereyra Diaz, who was serving a one-match ban for his \u201cviolent conduct\u201d in the last game against ATK Mohun Bagan, with Chencho Gyeltshen upfront.
\nWith a lot at stake, both the teams approached the game with a safety-first mindset as the defences looked solid, not willing to blink first.
\nIt needed a special effort to break the deadlock and Ogbeche \u2014 who else \u2014 provided the spark to unlock the Kerala rearguard with a deft touch and then a powerful finish to take his tally to a whopping 17 goals this season.
\nRohit Danu headed in a pin-point cross inside the box for Ogbeche to control the ball, turn sharply and fire a rocket of a shot past the keeper and into the net.
\nKerala responded with an attempt that found the crossbar from a Chencho Gyeltshen left-footer after the Bhutan striker was set up by Harmanjot Khabra, who flicked on a Adrian Luna corner in his path.
\nAt half time, league leaders Hyderabad led 1-0.
\nThe second half started with some end-to-end stuff as both the teams pressed the accelerator.
\nFirst Chencho spurned a gilt-edged chance, giving Laxmikant Kattimani enough time to come off his line and close him down despite being one-on-one with him.
\nKhabra then hit the bar from a corner before Alvaro Vazquez showed his class, getting past two defenders with a cheeky back-flick but shot straight at the keeper.
\nAt the other end, Prabhsukhan Gill pulled off a brilliant double save, first keeping Rohit Danu at bay and then got up in a flash to deny Ogbeche from close range.
\nKattimani was not far behind in Hyderabad goal, denying Vazquez\u2019s volley with a dive to his left. Vazquez ran Hyderabad ragged with his incisive play as he came close to scoring again, sending his attempt just over.
\nFinally, after a host of missed efforts at both ends, Hyderabad doubled their lead to seal their semifinal berth as substitute Siverio headed in a Nikhil Poojary cross with Gill only getting a faint hand to it. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BAMBOLIM, 23 Feb: Hyderabad FC qualified for their maiden semifinals with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Kerala Blasters in an entertaining Indian Super League match here on Wednesday. Bartholomew Ogbeche got Hyderabad in front in the 28th minute with Javier Siverio doubling the margin in the 87th minute to make it 35 points from 18 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-185050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}