The Kerala Blasters will play the final of ISL 2016 at home against Atletico de Kolkata after a penalty shootout that saw the Delhi Dynamos miss all their penalties. Despite Antonio Germans penalty being brilliantly saved by Antonio Doblas, the Blasters had Josu, Kervens Belfort and Mohammad Rafique scored from the spot to send the Blasters to a final in front of their adoring fans.
Delhi had won the second leg 2-1 despite being down to ten men since the 28th minute. Milan Singh’s red card didn’t deter Gianluca Zambrotta’s side. Marcelinho and Ruben Rocha scored for Delhi while Duckens Nazon scored for Kerala.
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Here’s how each player fared:
Delhi Dynamos
Antonio Doblas – 6/10
Doblas was tested nowhere near enough by the Kerala attackers. He would not have expected such an easy outing after Milan was sent off. He made a horrible error as he rushed out of his area and CK Vineeth took the ball away from him, but Ruben Rocha stole the ball away from the Kerala man’s feet.
Lalchhawnkima – 6/10
Kim Kima had a middling game. He wasn’t spectacular and didn’t make any mistake, which is what Zambrotta would have wanted from him in the first place. He was helped by Kerala’s approach as they didn’t flood forward enough.
Anas Edathodika – 7/10
Anas stood tall for Delhi, as he has done for a large part of the last two seasons. He made one mistake on the night and was suitably punished. He stood off Nazon and kept backing away and the Haitian punished him with a rocket of a shot past the hapless Doblas.
Ruben Rocha – 8/10
Like Anas, Rocha had a terrific game. he did not give Nazon, Belfort or Vineeth a sniff. He even got the goal that got Delhi level on aggregate as he rose highest to head in Tebar’s set-piece.
Souvik Chakraborty – 6/10
Souvik ended another fabulous season on a personal level with another steady performance. He was unspectacular but very effective. He did get beaten on a few occasions by Rafique, but he recovered well to thwart him.
Marcos Tebar – 6/10
Tebar controlled the tempo of the game, as he bossed the centre of the park. His passing, his positioning, his reading of the game, everything was terrific. He even put in fabulous set-pieces all through the game that tested Sandip Nandy. He even played a stunning no-look pass to Marcelinho, only for the league’s top-scorer to fluff his lines.
Milan Singh – 4/10
In an unfortunate end to what was a brilliant tournament for the man from Manipur, he was sent off for a horrible challenge on Mehtab Hossain.
Florent Malouda – 7/10
During open play, Malouda was a class apart. His movement, ball control and dribbling caused problems for the Kerala defenders all game. But, his penalty was diabolical. Being the marquee player and taking the first penalty, he had to set the tone with a confident take, but he skied his penalty horribly.
Marcelinho – 6/10
The league’s top-scorer added to his tally to move on to double figures for the season. But apart from his goal, he had a couple of big chances to kill Kerala off in normal time. By his standards, he should have put those away.
Kean Lewis – 5/10
After a spectacular start to the season, he seemed to fade away as the league went on – none more than the two legs of the semifinals. He barely made an impact going forward, as he could not dribble past the defenders and his passing was off the mark too.
Richard Gadze – 5/10
Again, Gadze was well-marshaled by Aaron Hughes and Cedric Hengbart. He was very quiet before he was replaced by Memo in Delhi’s only substitution of regulation time.
Substitutes
Memo – 4/10
Memo had a couple of shots from outside the box in extra-time but neither of those troubled Sandip Nandy. His penalty was half-hearted and was comfortable for Nandy to save.
Chinglensana Singh – 5/10
He came on with 20 minutes of extra time remaining, but Kerala did not make him work, near as much as they should have.
Bruno Pelissari – 2/10
He came on in the second half of extra time, and the penalty in the shootout was among the prime reasons for Zambrotta to bring him on in place of Marcelinho. But when the big moment came, he skied his penalty in a horrible effort.
Kerala Blasters
Sandip Nandy – 7/10
The veteran goalkeeper has his quirks, he has his eccentricities, but at the end of the day, he is still a very good goalkeeper. The 41-year-old made a few huge saves for Kerala in regulation time before saving Memo’s penalty in the shootout.
Sandesh Jhingan – 8/10
Jhingan had a terrific game. His most important contribution was to clear a header from Malouda off the line to keep his side in the game. Defensively, Jhingan didn’t put a foot wrong. Going forward, he didn’t get a single cross right.
Aaron Hughes – 6/10
Hughes led the defence very well, as he has throughout the tournament. There were a couple of occasions when the pace of Malouda and the other Delhi attackers troubled him, but he used his experience really well to bail himself out of those situations.
Cedric Hengbart – 6/10
His performance was very similar to Hughes. His lack of pace was exposed on some occasions but his experience bailed him out.
Didier Kadio – 5/10
Kadio made some crucial interventions but in the moments that mattered, he faltered. He failed to clear a long ball into the box effectively, gifting Marcelinho Delhi’s opener on the night. For the second goal, it was not a very potent header from Rocha but he got himself in an awkward position to clear it. He was replaced by Belfort in the 56th minute.
Mahamat Azrack – 6/10
Like Azrack has done all through Kerala’s revival this season, he went through the whole game unnoticed. But given that Kerala had the man-advantage, Azrack should have imposed himself on the game more and helped Kerala dominate the game.
Mehtab Hossain – 5/10
Mehtab didn’t play well. His passing was not up to the mark, he didn’t break up the Delhi attacks and his set-piece deliveries were nowhere near as good as they should be.
Josu Currais – 6/10
He struggled at left-back in the first leg and Steve Coppell responded by putting him in midfield. He was not at his creative best though. He did not link up with the other attackers. But when the moment arrived, he smashed his penalty in the shootout with aplomb, as he hit the roof of the net.
Mohammad Rafi – 4/10
He never got involved in any of the attacking play that Kerala had in the first 35 minutes. Then he suffered an injury to his groin and had to be replaced by Mohammad Rafique.
CK Vineeth – 5/10
Vineeth had an off-day. He worked hard and chased all lost causes, but there was barely any quality on the ball.
Duckens Nazon – 7/10
Nazon’s goal in regulation time was Kerala’s saviour.
Substitutes
Mohammad Rafique – 6/10
Rafique played decently after he came on to replace Rafi. He used his skill to beat Souvik on a few occasions but he did not put good balls into the box. He also scored Kerala’s winning penalty with a perfectly-placed kick into the bottom left corner.
Kervens Belfort – 6/10
Belfort, like Rafi, showed some decent pieces of skill but there was no end product. Like Rafi, he scored with his spot-kick to set Kerala on their way.
Antonio German – 4/10
German did not play well. His decision-making was awful. He took some shots from angles where it would have been a better option to pass the ball to other players who were in more dangerous positions. He saw his penalty brilliantly saved by Doblas.
