KOCHI: Diego Mauricio came back to haunt Kerala Blasters and dent their hopes of making it to the play-offs as he helped Odisha FC to a 2-2 draw against Kibu Vicuna's team in the Indian Super League at the Fatorda Stadium on Thursday.
The Brazilian striker who had also scored twice in the reverse fixture struck twice here (45, 74) to cancel out goals from Jordan Murray (52) and Gary Hooper (68).
The result leaves Blasters tottering at ninth in the table and seven points adrift of top four as qualification looks virtually out of reach given the number of teams ahead of them. Odisha meanwhile stays rooted to the bottom of the table with nine points.
When the game got underway, Blasters enjoyed a sustained spell of possession. While Odisha hardly saw the ball in the early exchanges, the Kerala outfit hardly threatened them in the final third. The strike partnership of Jordan Murray and Gary Hooper who looked so effective when they paired up in the previous games looked slightly off colour early on.
While the likes of Sahal Abdul Samad and Rahul KP were also not able to influence the game as it looked like the side lacked a cutting edge. Despite this, they enjoyed more opportunities in the first half with the best chance falling to Juande in the 34th minute.
The move came about from an error by Odisha goalkeeper Arshdeep Singh. The young keeper's pass was intercepted by Hooper inside the box and the Englishman slid the ball into the path of an onrushing Juande who blazed his shot over the bar.
Odisha went onto score against the run of play as the Blasters backline which has been leaking goals all season were caught on the break.
Jerry Mawihmingthanga chipped a ball into the path of Mauricio from midfield and the Brazilian timed his run well to get in between the Blasters centre-backs. Mauricio managed to poke the ball past an onrushing Albino Gomes to give Odisha an unlikely lead right before half-time. Stung by that setback, Blasters re-grouped at half-time and came out all guns blazing.
Odisha started being sloppy in possession and were committing a lot of mistakes and the equaliser came in the 52nd minute. Hooper latched onto a mistake from the Odisha backline and slid the ball into the path of Murray who slammed it into the roof of the net. Blasters kept searching for a second goal and it came in the 68th minute from a beautiful team move.
A string of passes cut open the Odisha defence with Sahal laying up the ball for Hooper who made no mistake with his finish. However, Blasters' brittle defence allowed Odisha back into the game as they equalised in the 74th minute.
Mauricio was left completely unmarked inside the box as he had an easy tap-in from three yards out after being set-up by Bradden Inman. As the clock was winding down, Kerala could not muster up a winner as their qualification hopes started to fade away.
There were chances at both ends in the closing stages but both sides settled for a point which mattered little in the bigger scheme of things.