La Liga World Tournament: Brave Blasters bow down to five star Girona

The difference in quality between the two sides was evident as Kerala Blasters fired blanks once again, this time against tougher opponents...

Girona's showcase of the Spanish football flavour resulted in a 0-5 defeat for Kerala Blasters at the JLN Stadium in Kochi on Saturday. The home side had earlier lost 0-6 against Melbourne City.

Eric Montes' (43') goal separated the teams at half-time in a one-sided affair The La Liga side shifted gears as the game progressed, with Pedro Porro (54'), Alex Granell (57'), Aday Benitez (75') and Aleix Garcia Serrano (90+2') getting on the scoresheet.

David James made four changes to the lineup that suffered a heavy 0-6 loss against A-League side Melbourne City. Seiminlen Doungel, Halicharan Narzary, Nemanja Lakic-Pesic and Dheeraj Singh were replaced by Zakeer Mundampara, Courage Pekuson, Mohammed Rakip and Naveen Kumar.

Girona, having played Melbourne City 24 hours earlier, fielded a heavily rotated side. Head coach Eusebio Sacristan made as many as nine changes to the lineup that started the 6-0 victory against the City Blues.

With a quarter of the match gone, the Spanish side came close to taking the lead. Yhoan Many, who impressed on the left flank against Melbourne City, beat his marker Prasanth Karuthadathkuni and found Kevin Soni in the centre of the box but the striker sent his shot marginally wide.

The home team did a fine job of keeping the visitors at bay for most of the first half, with a low block and a wide 3-4-3 preventing Girona from switching play and causing havoc from the flanks like they did against Melbourne City.

But throughout the half, Blasters found it difficult to hold onto the ball and ultimately paid the price. The hosts sensed trouble when Pedro Porro cut inside and curled a right-footed shot at goal that Naveen Kumar pushed wide with his fingertips.

Girona would soon earn their reward for dominance with two minutes left in the first half. Eric Montes followed up his well-timed overlapping run past Pedro Porro with a powerful effort that beat Naveen Kumar at his near post.

A quick throw-in early in the second half helped Girona extend their lead. Substitute David Copovi's cross flew past Jhingan and Naveen and fell into the feet of Pedro Porro who tapped it into the net.

The Spanish side was relentless in their forays forward and the difference in quality between the two teams was evident. Alex Granell ghosted into the centre of the box and placed his shot into the bottom left corner to make it 3-0 before the hour mark.

Kerala Blasters' brightest spark in the game was a stupendous free-kick by Courage Pekuson that forced a brilliant save from Gorka Moreno. But the cheers would soon die down when Aday Benitez cut inside from the left flank and unleashed a curling effort that took a slight deflection off Anas' legs before it fell into the net.

The introduction of Cristian Portugues towards the end of the game helped increase the tempo and the substitute drew Naveen Kumar into a foul inside the box to earn a penalty. Aleix Garcia Serrano took the final kick of the game, sending a powerful spot-kick into the bottom left corner.