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2010 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan struck a brilliant hat-trick, the first of the season, to power Mumbai City FC to the top of the Indian Super League table with a 5-0 demolition of Kerala Blasters in Mumbai on Saturday.
Riding on the triple strike from the Uruguayan legend, who combined beautifully with fellow-South Americans Cafu, and Matias Frederico, Mumbai outplayed Blasters to leapfrog Delhi Dynamos and occupy top spot on the leaderboard with 19 points from 12 games.
The massive defeat left Blasters in fourth place with 15 points from 11 games.
The Uruguayan striker, also the team's skipper, scored in the 5th, 14th and 63rd minute to the delight of the home team supporters at the Mumbai Football Arena in suburban Andheri before going off the field.
The fourth goal, a left-footed effort from just outside the box from the very impressive Brazilian medio Cafu "killed" the game effectively as a contest with 22 minutes remaining before Romanian Lucian Goian headed a corner in to round off the tally in the 73rd minute and complete Blasters' humiliation.
Forlan brought the roof down with his brilliant twin strike within the first 15 minutes to silence the big Blasters’ fans.
The Uruguayan first latched on to a beautifully weighted lob from Argentinian medio Frederico by running forward to reach the ball and beat rival 'keeper Graham Stack with an angular shot that bulged the left corner of the net in the fifth minute.
That goal really spurred the home side and especially Forlan on as he unleashed a pile driver from 35 yards out that needed a dive from the English custodian of Blasters who tipped it around the post for a corner.
Indian captain Sunil Chhetri nearly squeezed in a back heel of the flag kick from Forlan but was cheeky try was stopped in the nick of time by Slack.
Image: Mumbai City FC's Diego Forlan (left) celebrates with teammates on scoring a hat-trick against Kerala Blasters during their ISL match in Mumbai on Saturday
Photograph: ISL