2021–22 Kerala Blasters FC season
The 2021–22 season was the eighth season in Kerala Blasters FC's existence, as well as their eighth season in Indian Super League. The 2021–22 Indian Super League season began on 19 November 2021, and it end on 20 March 2022 with all the matches held in Goa across three venues, same like the previous season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The Blasters played the most number of pre-season friendlies among all ISL clubs prior to the start of league season. In this season, the Blasters made their debut in the Durand Cup by participating in the tournament's 2021 edition, but was knocked out in the group stages of the tournament. The club had a serious change in the rosters, as they appointed Ivan Vukomanović as their new manager for the season, and released all the foreign players from the last season and recruited the likes of Adrián Luna, Jorge Pereyra Díaz, Álvaro Vázquez, Enes Sipović and Chencho Gyeltshen. They also signed several young Indian players and the experienced players like Harmanjot Khabra and Karanjit Singh from the summer and winter transfer windows respectively. The Blasters played their first match in the league in the opening match of the season against ATK Mohun Bagan, which they ended up losing 4–2. Since their defeat in the opening match of the season, the Blasters went unbeaten for the next ten matches until they were beaten by the southern rivals Bengaluru in January 2022. In between the unbeaten run, the Blasters moved to the top spot in league table for the first time in seven years during the middle of the season following their 2–0 victory over Odisha in the same month. In the same season, the Blasters qualified for the playoffs of the ISL for the first time since 2016, after the Blasters' place in the fourth position was sealed after the Mumbai City lost their deciding match against Hyderabad in the month of March. At the end of the regular season, the Blasters broke several club records like the most number of wins and clean-sheets in a season, most number of points-per-game, most number of points in a season, and ended the season with a positive goal difference for the first time in the club's history. The Blasters played the league winners Jamshedpur in the both legs of the semi-finals. They played the first leg of the semi-final on 11 March, which the Kerala Blasters won after Sahal Abdul Samad scored the only goal in the match, as the Blasters won 0–1 at full-time. They progressed through to the finals, as the second leg ended in a 1–1 draw and the Blasters qualified with an aggregate score of 2–1 on 15 March. Kerala Blasters met Hyderabad in the final on 20 March. The Blasters found the lead through Rahul KP's goal in the 68th minute, but Hyderabad equalised the goal in the 88th minute of the game. After the match went goalless in the injury time and the extra time,