ATK thrashed Hyderabad FC at home to go to the top of the table of Indian Super League this season. It was the second match for ATK in this season. In the first match, Kerala Blasters edged past ATK by a margin of 2-1. ATK was affected by few referring mistakes in that match. Some decisions did not go in their favour. So, in this match, the home side was determined to get all three points.
The combination of Roy Krishna and David Williams did not click for ATK in the first match. However, this pair was the hero of the match tonight. David Williams opened the score sheet for ATK at the 25th minute of the match. It was a brilliant ball provided by Javi Hernandez. David Williams got the goalkeeper of Hyderabad FC in one on one situation. The star centre forward did not make a mistake to place the ball perfectly in the net.
It was the first match of the season for Hyderabad FC. They were not organized enough in this match. At the 15th minute of the match, Rafa picked up an injury and he was subbed off. Marko Stankovic was included in his place. Two-star Indian players Nikhil Poojary and Adil Khan were in the starting lineup of Hyderabad FC. However, they failed to make a real impact in this match.
The club management of ATK brought in the highest goal scorer of Australian League, Roy Krishna in this season. He repaid the faith shown to him by the management with a brilliant goal 25 yards outside the box at the 27th minute of the match. The goalkeeper of Hyderabad FC, Kamaljit Singh had no clue about the shot. Jayesh Rane provided a brilliant through ball towards David Williams at the 44th minute. It was again finished well by David Williams. ATK were ahead by 3 goals after the end of the first half.
The fate of the match was almost decided in the first half. However, the coach of Hyderabad FC brought in a few new faces in the second half. Laldanmawia Ralte and Gani Nigam were introduced in place of Ashish Rai and Marcelinho. The coach of ATK, Antonio Habas brought in a defensive midfielder Pronay Halder in place of an attacking midfielder Jayesh Rane to seal the game in favour of ATK. It was certainly a tactical switch.
Edu Garcia and Komal Thatal were also brought in the second half. Both the players were eager to prove themselves to get a chance in the starting lineup in the next match. Prabir Das provided two brilliant through balls towards Edu Garcia who scored two back to back goals in quick succession. The match finished with a scoreline of 5-0 in favour of ATK.
The coach of ATK, Antonio Habas will be extremely delighted with the performance of his side in this match. On the other hand, Phil Brown will have to go back to the drawing board to chalk out the mistakes of his players on Friday night.
