ISL 2018-19: NorthEast United FC 2-1 Kerala Blasters, 5 Talking points

#2 Sandesh Jhingan: Hero to Villain in six minutes

Sandesh Jhingan had a night to forget at the end

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.