Vineeth fires Kerala into ISL semis

ISL

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CK Vineeth scored the all-important goal for Kerala Blasters, as they beat NorthEast United 1-0 in front of a packed Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi to set up an enticing semifinal clash against Delhi Dynamos. 

Vineeth's delicious 66th-minute goal found no answer from NorthEast, who had to win to go through; even a draw would have been enough for Kerala.

This is second time Kerala are making the last four of the ISL, after finishing runners-up in the inaugural season. After a rather flat start to their campaign, Kerala, with a solid back four and the arrival of CK Vineeth, have turned things around by collecting 13 points from a possible 18 in the last five games of the league season.

Nelo Vingada named an unchanged team that beat Delhi Dynamos 2-1 in the last game, but Nicolas Velez had to be withdrawn at the last-minute for the visitors after sustaining a hamstring injury during warm-up.

The game took flight early on as Duckens Nazon dispossessed Mailson on the left flank in the fourth minute and made his way to the six yard box. With only the keeper to beat, Nazon's curled effort was tipped away by Rehnesh Paramba. The visitors hit back with a chance of their own three minutes later. Seityasen Singh - NorthEast United's best player of the half-went past left-back Rino Anto, but while making his way into the box did a little too much as the ball went out of play. From what was a spirited start, what followed through the rest of the half was lethargic.

Kerala looked to be content to give the ball to the visitors and look to counter while NorthEast who have never made it to the semi-finals looked short of inspiration. Seityasen had the game's first shot on target in the 18th minute, Romaric had a shy at goal from range and the visitors had 60% of the ball. But whenever they were on the attack, Emiliano Alfaro looked isolated with only Seityasen to give him company in front of a towering Kerala defence.

NorthEast United came out in the second half with more intent but again Alfaro was all by himself with little support. The Uruguayan came close 10 minutes into the half but his shot was feeble. Two minutes later, he had a better shot on goal, but Graham Stack stood firm, saved the shot and there was no one on the rebound.

Then came the turning point of the match. Vineeth got the ball on the edge of the six-yard box, cut in past right-back Robin Gurung, took one look at goal, and shot it past Rehnesh with a low shot.

The stadium erupted and from there on it was all Kerala. NorthEast went all-out for the equaliser while Kerala kept solid at the back looking for a counter. Sandesh Jhingan and Alfaro got into a tussle late into the game with both players given yellow cards as the game ended on a rather fiery note. Jhingan kicked Alfaro after the forward pulled Jhingan's shorts off and also held his leg after receiving a challenge on the byline.

Steve Coppell brought in pace in the form of Antonio German and Kerala had five shots on target in the last 15 minutes of the game and eventually the visitors surrendered to a much better team on the night.