ATK confirms play-offs spot with Krishna hat-trick

After a goalless first half, Krishna’s (49’, 60’, 63’) brilliance saw ATK surge to a 3-0 lead. Manuel Onwu pulled one back for Odisha (67’) but it turned out to be just a consolation as ATK saw the game out quite comfortably. The three points see ATK go top, tied on points with FC Goa with 33 pointsfrom 16 matches.

For Odisha, a third loss on the bounce has dealt a huge blow to its play-off hopes, which is now hanging by a thread. ATK made an energetic start to the game with Prabir Das and Krishna leading the way. The former sent in a dangerous cross into the box after the latter set him free, but Edu Garcia could not latch on to it.

Odisha slowly got to grips with the pace of the game, with Xisco Hernandez heavily involved. But alert defending from the home side meant Odisha could not fashion any clear-cut chances. ATK continued to pose questions but was not able to make an impact in the final third.

However, the action livened up in the second half with Krishna running riot. He put ATK into the lead within four minutes of the restart after moving away from Narayan Das to meet a corner from Javier Hernandez. His sweetly struck his shot at the far post, giving no chance whatsoever to Odisha goalkeeper Francisco Dorronsoro.

The tourist tried to mount a response and almost hit back immediately when Narayan picked out Xisco’s run into the box. But the Spaniard’s first-time hit was straight at ATK goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharja. Krishna made sure Odisha would regret that miss at the hour mark.

A quick counter-attack saw Mandi Sosa send a long ball over the defence for Krishna to attack. The Fijian striker outpaced Carlos Delgado before executing a brilliant dink over a stranded Dorronsoro. Three minutes later, Krishna struck again to completehis hat-trick.

Marcos Tebar gave away the ball on the right-wing to Jayesh Rane, who picked out Krishna with a cross. The striker controlled it brilliantly before firing it in on the turn to register his 13th goal of the season. Odisha was given hope of pulling off an unlikely comeback when Onwu directed Shubham Sarangi’s cross from the right past Bhattacharja in the 67th minute.

However, ATK managed to slow down the pace of the game and see off Odisha’s response to go top of the table and confirm its place in the playoff.