Spirited Pune hold Kolkata to a draw in ISL

Atletico de Kolkata's erratic run in away games continued as a spirited Pune City FC held them to a 1-1 draw in an 11th round encounter of the Indian Super League, in Pune, on Saturday.

Jakub Podany's 11th minute strike for Kolkata was neutralised by Pune's Greek World Cupper Kostas Katsouranis just before halftime as the Kolkata outfit remained firmly in contention for a berth in the semi-finals.

Kolkata stay second in the eight-team table with 17 points from 11 games while Pune are seventh in the table with 13 points despite being on even keel with Delhi Dynamos and NorthEast United on goal difference.

Kolkata's last victory in an away game came more than a month ago in Goa.

The visitors got the lead against the run of play in the 11th minute when India Under-23 defender Pritam Kotal misjudged a long ball and Kolkata skipper Luis Garcia sent a measured

cross for Podany, who timed his jump to perfection nodding the ball home.

It was a match where Kolkata coach Antonio Habas made as many as five changes and one of them Podany -- a former Sparta Prague left-winger vindicated his coach's decision.

Kolkata's giant custodian Edel Bete had a good match as he pulled off a few splendid saves on either side of the break.

Hungarian Krtian Vadocz took a crack at goal in the 30th minute but the lanky Bete was equal to the task.

Pune could have equalized in the 34th minute when Kostas failed to angle a low assist delivered by Jermaine Penant as it was foiled by Bete.

The hosts finally got the equalizer in the first minute of stoppage time in the first half as Kostas got his fourth goal in the league.

The Greek mideo could have added a fifth goal to his tally had Bete not dived full stretch to fist a powerful punch which was directed towards the top corner of the net.