I-League: Indian Arrows beat Gokulam Kerala FC 1-0

A 66th-minute goal by Amarjit Singh helped the Indian Arrows stun eighth-placed Gokulam Kerala FC 1-0 in their Group stage match of the ongoing 12th edition of the I-League here at the Barabati Stadium on Friday.

The victory is the second one of Floyd Pinto's team in the tournament. With this victory, the Indian Arrows have jumped up a place to be in the 9th position, while Gokulam Kerala FC are placed eighth in the points table.

The game began with hosts Indian Arrows in their traditional sky blue while visitors Gokulam Kerala FC in Maroon. Bino George, head coach for Gokulam Kerala FC today started with an amped up attack through new recruit Rohit Mirza. Gokulam Kerala FC as expected started on an attacking note, but the Indian Arrows stood strong enough in front of goal.

On the contrary, the hosts made their way past into the Kerala box quite a few times, but their lack of creativity in finding the finishing touch eluded them of any lead. Rahul KP, Boris Singh, Rahim Ali played interesting football, but could not maintain the tempo of their runs once inside the Kerala box, losing the ball more often than not to Gokulam's Ghanian defender Daniel Addo. The first 45 minutes came to a close with no goals being scored on either end.

The second half began with Gokulam Kerala FC showing their intent to gather a much-needed lead but Indian arrows defence line stood like a wall denying the visitors any chance to find the back of the net. Gokulam Kerala FC, however, continued with their attacks and did get some real close chances to score, but could not convert any to their favour.

A free kick by Gokulam's Brazilian mid-fielder Felipe Castro in the 63rd minute that could have easily gone into the Arrows net was cheaply missed by Daniel Addo's misplaced header. This was the closest that the visitors came to score in the game. Soon after on the counter, a silly foul inside the Gokulam box by Felipe Castro on Vikram Pratap Singh ended up in the hosts being rewarded with a penalty shot.

Indian Arrows captain, Amarjit Singh thereafter made no mistake in taking the penalty shot, ensuring the hosts draw first blood in the 66th minute, scoring his second goal of the season. Thereafter Gokulam Kerala tried increasing their attacks but the young Arrows side were too strong and committed to denying them any loose ends.

The game came to an end with the young Indian Arrows stealing a stunning win of 1-0 over Gokulam Kerala FC, with the goal scorer being awarded the Hero of the match.

-ANI