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Kerala Blasters FC started their Kalinga Super Cup 2025 on a high note by knocking out defending champions East Bengal by 2-0 in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday. Noah Sadaoui and Jesús Jiménez scored the goals for the Kerala Blasters as they outplayed the Kolkata side.
With this defeat, East Bengal FC's season ended on a sad note after an overwhelming finish in the Indian Super League 2024-25.
Kerala Blasters march on! 💥⚽
— Sportz Point (@sportz_point) April 20, 2025
A dominant 2-0 win over East Bengal seals their spot in the Super 8. Next stop: a high-voltage clash against Mohun Bagan!#KBFC #BlastersOnTheRise #Super8Bound #keralablasters #SuperCup #mohunbagan #EastBengal #Indianfootball #Footballindia pic.twitter.com/ISfwWWWKly
Jesús Jiménez opened the scoring for Kerala as he found the back of the net from a penalty in the 40th minute of the match. In the second half, Noah Sadaoui extended the lead for the Manjapadas in the 64th minute to hand them an easy win.
Blasters looked threatening from the word go as Jesus nearly scored from Noah's delivery in the second minute of the game. They kept on applying the pressure, but could not find the end result despite a few chances created by Noah.
Noah Sadaoui's banger from outside the box in Kerala Blasters vs East Bengal FC match in Kalinga Super Cup 2025. pic.twitter.com/uWjrbpLMDZ
— Sportz Point (@sportz_point) April 20, 2025
But it wasn't until the 40th minute that Jesus Jimenez stepped up to take the penalty after Gill made a foul inside the box.
In the 64th minute, Noah scored a screamer of a goal to extend the lead, which was eventually good enough for them to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Kerala Blasters will now face Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the quarter-final on 26th April. For those who do not know, Mohun Bagan SG will play from the quarter-final directly after they received a bye in the round of 16.
"Today, the team showed me that they still have something inside, and they wanted to compete and do their best. I’m proud of them cuz the work they’ve done is amazing. We’ll have to see about Luna. He felt that it wasn’t good and asked for a change. We’ll see," Balsters' coach David Catala said after the win.