Gokulam Kerala FC 6 (Sinisa Stanisavic 10’, 30’, 73’, Ignacio Abeledo 45+3’, 90+5’, Sergio Llamas 51’)
beat
Inter Kashi 2 (Bryce Miranda 3’, Matija Babovic 27’)
AIFF Media Team
KOZHIKODE: Gokulam Kerala finally got their long awaited first home win of the season, beating Inter Kashi 6-2 in a Round 10 match of the I-League 2024-25 at the EMS Corporation Stadium on Friday, January 24, 2025.
Gokulam only lead narrowly 3-2 at half-time, before slamming in three more goals in the second half that left Inter Kashi devastated.
Sinisa Stanisavic scored a hat-trick, Ignacio Abeledo a brace and Sergio Llamas a goal for Gokulam Kerala FC. Inter Kashi’s goals came from Bryce Miranda and Matija Babovic.
This was Gokulam’s first home win of the season and they have now moved to the fourth position in the table with 16 points from 10 games. Despite the defeat, Inter Kashi have managed to hold on to the third place with 17 points from 10 matches.
Having gone down by a goal, Gokulam’s comeback was one for the ages, led by the Montenegro recruit Sinisa Stanisavic’s fine hat-trick and Spanish midfielder Ignacio Abeledo’s genius in midfield.
The game got off to a blistering start and within three minute Inter Kashi had stunned the hosts to take the lead. Having picked up the ball thirty yard from goal, Bryce Miranda raced through a hapless Gokulam defence that parted freely and perhaps little too easily for the coach’s liking. Once inside the box, the forward slammed his shot low into the bottom corner to stun the hosts.
Gokulam hit back with a vengeance, and equalised in the 10th minute, Sinisa Stanisavic rising above the Inter Kashi defence to head in a perfect cross into the bottom corner.
Inter Kashi snatched back the lead in the 27th minute, from a free kick routine straight out of the training ground. A long ball from the right into the box was headed square by Miranda, and Matija Babovic rose above his markers to head the delivery into the net.
Gokulam hit straight back barely two minutes later. Abeledo played a brilliant long ball first time into the path of Suhair Vadakkepeedika who cut it into the path of Stanisavic. The Montenegrin made no mistake, finishing first time into the bottom left of the net.
Half chances came and went aplenty for both sides over the next quarter of the game, with neither midfield displaying enough fortitude to hold the ball and manage the gameplay.
The best of those fell to the two men who had already scored goals, Stanisavic forcing a save out of Arindam Bhattacharya with a chance entirely of his own conjuring, after Miranda had forced a similar save from Shibinraj in Gokulam’s goal.
Gokulam took the lead right on the edge of halftime. Martin Chaves played a square pass to Abeledo at the top of the Kashi box, and the Spaniard turned and shot an inch perfect shot into the far side bottom corner out of a diving Bhattacharya’s reach.
Gokulam added a fourth six minutes after the restart, Sergio Llamas finishing a sweeping move to put them two to the good. Stanisavic completed his hat trick and scored Gokulam’s fifth with a brilliant looping header from a lobbed pass in the 72nd minute.
The comeback had turned into a rout by the end. Deep in injury time, having spotted Bhattacharya off his line, Abeledo let fly from near the centre line to score a sixth, insult added to injury as Gokulam cruised to their first home win.
