Mumbai: After nearly 10 weeks of action featuring 60 matches, a mouth-watering clash between Atletico de Kolkata and Kerala Blasters promises to provide the perfect high-voltage finale to the inaugural Indian Super League football tournament here on Saturday (4.30pm UAE).
A dash of cricketing flavour has been added to the contest given that Kerala are co-owned by Sachin Tendulkar and ATK are co-owned by Sourav Ganguly. The two icons are expected to cheer their respective teams from the stands, along with what is expected to be a sell-out crowd.
Ironically, Saturday’s finalists finished third and fourth in the league stage and the teams who were knocked out in the semi-finals were top finishers Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa.
Despite being finalists, both Blasters and ATK have had contrasting league rounds and semi-final matches.
The Blasters struggled in the initial few games and, from being the bottom-placed, they bounced back and started peaking at the end of the tournament.
They outclassed league-toppers Chennaiyin in the first semi-final and got the much-needed goal in extra-time of the second leg to beat the leaders 4-3 on aggregate and book a spot in the final.
On the other hand, ATK endured a drop in form after an initial blitz. They were the league leaders in the first few weeks but lost the plot and managed to scrape through to the semi-finals and then final.
The Eastern Indian outfit seem to have lost their initial rhythm and even against FC Goa they drew a blank, managing to qualify for the finals on the back of penalties, which they won 4-2.
With the Kolkata side finding it difficult to score goals in the second half of the league, they have relied on their solid defence to see them through to the finals.
