ISL: Chennaiyin FC and FC Pune City play out an entertaining 1-1 draw

Chennaiyin FC celebrate Mendoza’s equaliser against FC Pune City

In terms of drama, football as a sport might just take centre stage. Match number 28 of the Indian Super League (ISL) had a lot of drama and then some more. Long range volleys, half chances, proper chances that went abegging, a missed penalty, and fans chanting slogans of support for the home team – all of that was seen today. The match had assumed added importance due to the fact that both the teams could have gone to the top of the table ahead of Kolkata if they had clinched a win.

In what was an entertaining encounter, Chennaiyin FC created a lot of chances, but were either unlucky or wasteful, as they couldn’t find the second goal that would have turned the match around for them. Both teams had to be satisfied with one point each. After the completion of the first leg of all fixtures, Chennai are level on points with Atletico de Kolkata.

The atmosphere was electric at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex. And rightly so. Both the teams were well aware of the stakes in the game. Interestingly the previous two oppositions that both had played were the same - Kolkata and NorthEast United FC. While Pune had come out on top on both occasions, Chennaiyin drew both its encounters.

Fast start kept both teams on their toes

Both the teams were aware of the explosive strike forces that the opponents possessed and there was little left to doubt that the strikers on both sides would have no mercy for defensive errors. The game lit up in as early as the second minute of the game when Elano took a corner that was cleared by Dudu only to have Mendoza latch onto the rebound unsuccessfully.

That was to be the first of many volleys that the goalkeepers in both the halves would be tested with. Mendoza in the fifth minute, struck a powerful volley only to have the goal denied by the outstretched arm of Arindam.

For all its strike power though, Chennaiyin failed to open the scoring, which was eventually done by Pune. In the ninth minute of the game, Israil Gurung ran down the right flank outpacing the Chennaiyin defenders to send a lovely cross for Kostas Kotsouranis, who made no mistake in sweeping the ball past Chennaiyin FC’s French custodian Gennaro Bracigliano.

Thereafter the game went into overdrive with Chennai firing effort after effort at the goal of Arindam Bhattacharya. They were rewarded for their persistence when they won a penalty in the 27th minute of the game. With Elano stepping up to take the penalty it was probably a foregone conclusion that he would convert. However, he contrived to miss it, even though Arindam dived in the wrong direction.

Thereafter both sides traded sharp attacks on each other’s goal, but the lead continued to stay for Pune. Towards the end of the first half, Pune had two glorious chances saved when Dudu missed a straight shot on goal and a minute later when both Kostas and Davide Colomba too managed to hit the ball right towards Bracigliano.

Chennaiyin dominate the second half

While Pune went into the halftime with their lead intact, that was not to be the case in the second half. They were forced back for a major part of the half, and had to dig in to hold on. Coach Franco Colomba’s team, who had displayed exemplary form against Kolkata were unable to kill the game off and this was something that eventually went against them.

In the 57th minute of the game, Balwant Singh, who had been effortlessly combining with Mendoza up-front fished out a perfect pass after going around the Pune defence and the Columbian striker collected the ball calmly and slotted it past custodian Arindam.

In hindsight perhaps both the teams would be ruing the missed chances, given that there were so many of them. Post the second goal, however, Pune went into a defensive shell, looking only to clear the ball rather than score. In the 81st minute Israil Gurung made a solo run from the Pune half all the way to the Chennaiyin half and struck the ball well only to have it saved by Bracigliano.

The 7,200 plus strong crowd were constantly on their toes hoping that Pune would find the elusive second goal, which was not to be the case. The game ended in a draw with both the teams still behind Atletico de Kolkata in the standings.