ISL preview: Kerala Blasters respectful of 'wounded' ATK Mohun Bagan

Harmanjot Khabra was caught unawares when Alex Lima -- unmarked inside the box -- fired in past a lunging Marko Leskovic to give East Bengal a glimmer of hope in the ISL season opener in Kochi last week.

Substitute Ivan Kaliuzhnyi scored soon after to win it, 3-1, for Kerala Blasters, and that moment of sloppiness in their defending a minute ago was all but forgotten.

But on Saturday, the eve of their second match against visiting ATK Mohun Bagan, Khabra recollected the moment they conceded, a blemish on an otherwise fine season opener at a packed Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium.

"We lost focus at the last minute. As a defender when you lose a cleansheet you know there was a loss in concentration somewhere," said Khabra in his pre-match interaction with the media.

Kerala Blasters' head coach Ivan Vukomanovic echoed his senior player's views on the need to be defensively solid against ATKMB which is the most successful side in the league with three titles.

"We have to be defensively very very strong," said Vukomanovic.

The Serbian chose not to take into account ATK Mohun Bagan's 1-2 home defeat to Chennaiyin that kicked off their campaign. He believes their opponents on Sunday are a different breed altogether to East Bengal.

"The big teams are always dangerous when they are wounded .. we will have a lot of work defensively. We'll have to know how to defend at any moment," said Vukomanovic.

Juan Ferrando's ATK had conceded twice in the final 30 minutes after taking the lead in Kolkata on October 10.

 

Tight-lipped over Kaliuzhnyi
Vukomanovic reported that apart from young midfielder Ayush Adhikari everyone else was fit and available.

Against East Bengal, he had left Rahul KP and Ivan Kaliuzhnyi on the bench, bringing them on late in the match. They made an instant impact with Ukrainian Kaliuzhnyi exploiting the open spaces to score a brace.

But will he start? "I don't think anybody is nailed on," was Vukomanovic's response. He said the two frontmen, Apostolos Giannou and Dimitrios Diamantakos had impressed him so should Kaliuzhnyi start, it would be at the expense of one of those strikers. But that would mean a change of shape.

For ATK, Liston Colaco, who was impressive as a substitute against Chennaiyin, could start.