Margao: Frenchman Gregory Arnolin's 84th&nbsp;minute strike helped FC Goa edge past Kerala Blasters FC 2-1&nbsp;in a keenly contested ISL football game and take top spot in&nbsp;the league table here today.
Into the final minutes and the game tied at 1-1, central&nbsp;defender Gregory, who is a French professional, made it count&nbsp;to score the winner much to the delight of the home fans at&nbsp;the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda.
But it was Sachin Tendulkar co-owned side, which drew&nbsp;first blood after Mohammed Rafi's 24th in the first half.&nbsp;Rahul Bheke provided the assist from the right flank. It was a&nbsp;delicious loop over the defenders that found Rafi, who nodded&nbsp;it in from point blank range.
The rest of the half saw a see-saw battle between the&nbsp;teams and finally the hosts scored the equaliser in the nick of&nbsp;time as midfielder Leo Moura found the net in the 45th minute.
It came from a corner which was punched out by the&nbsp;keeper. The ball fell to Moura, who is a professional&nbsp;Brazilian player, just outside the box and he calmly placed it&nbsp;into the top left corner to level the score 1-1 at half-time.
The second half also saw a fierce battle between the two&nbsp;sides as possession moved from bunch to another.&nbsp;Kerala Blasters needing a win desperately showed lot of&nbsp;urgency in the second half as they made inroads into the rival&nbsp;half with steady moves. Sanches Watt and Marcus Williams&nbsp;combined well upfront to pose constant threat to the home team&nbsp;defense.
In the 65th minute Sanchez nearly put his team up with a&nbsp;left footed drive but alert keeper Laxmikant Kattimani dived&nbsp;to his left to bring off good save.&nbsp;
With the match heading into the final 10 minutes, the&nbsp;nervousness between the players of the two sides seemed&nbsp;evident but Gregory came up with a moment of brilliance.
Dempo left-winger Mandar Dessai curled in a beautiful&nbsp;ball from the corner kick towards the middle. The skipper rose&nbsp;the highest to win the header and nod it into the back of the&nbsp;net. Nothing the keeper could do as it was headed with too&nbsp;much power.
Kerala Blasters did try hard to find the equaliser in the&nbsp;dying minutes but substiute C K Vineeth effort went straight&nbsp;to keeper Katimani.&nbsp;
The Zico-coached side has 10 points from 5 matches, while&nbsp;Kerala, who slumped to their third consecutive loss, have just&nbsp;four points from five games.

Frenchman Gregory Arnolin's 84th&nbsp;minute strike helped FC Goa edge past Kerala Blasters FC 2-1&nbsp;in a keenly contested ISL football game and take top spot in&nbsp;the league table&nbsp;

ISL 2: FC Goa beat Kerala Blasters, take top spot

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Frenchman Gregory Arnolin's 84th&nbsp;minute strike helped FC Goa edge past Kerala Blasters FC 2-1&nbsp;in a keenly contested ISL football game and take top spot in&nbsp;the league table&nbsp;

ISL 2: FC Goa beat Kerala Blasters, take top spot

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ISL 2: FC Goa beat Kerala Blasters, take top spot

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