‘Goals’ was the buzzword for Chennai City coach Robin Charles Raja ahead of his match against Mohun Bagan on Saturday. His team managed to break their scoring drought, but ended up eventually going down to I-League giants Mohun Bagan as the Kolkata side bounced back to secure a 2-1 win at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai.
Brazilian striker Marcus ‘Tank’ Vinicius broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute, scoring Chennai City’s first ever I-League goal after a defensive error from Bagan. However, Jeje Lalpekhlua quickly brought the visitors back level within five minutes and Haitian striker Sony Norde scored again in the 76th minute to deliver all three points for the Mariners, enabling them to continue their 100 percent start to the 2017 I-League season.
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Norde was a major threat all night down the left flank, posing headaches for Chennai City’s right channel of Edwin Sydney and Joseph Clemente. Katsumi Yusa was posted on the other flank as Bagan started in an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation with both Jeje and Scotsman Darryl Duffy starting.
Chennai City also opted for an attacking 4-4-2 lineup in the hunt for goals with a Brazilian front two of Tank and Charles De Souza and bringing back Afghani Haroon Amiri who hadn’t played since the first game.
Bagan’s swift play meant the chances came from the very beginning. In the 7th minute, Norde was played through on goal with just the keeper to beat, but he fluffed his shot to result in a corner. The corner wasn’t a good one and Chennai City managed to launch a quick counter through Charles and Tank with the latter through on goal, but his shot was cleared out by the Bagan defence.
Bagan continued to press with Norde, who had another opportunity in the 11th minute only to see Chennai keeper Karanjit Singh get himself in the way. It was not to be the last of the duel between the two.
Just a couple of minutes later, Duffy played Norde through again with a beautiful pass only for Karanjit to once again stand in his way. Bagan were ratcheting up the pressure by now and were able to win free-kicks in dangerous positions, however, they weren’t able to capitalise on these opportunities.
Bagan went close again on 18 minutes, this time through their Japanese star Yusa, but his final ball was once again found wanting. The hosts though responded with a very good chance of their own in the 27th minute with Tank and Charles combining once again, Charles with the shot on target, only to be denied by Debjit Majumder in goal.
And that blown chance looked to have been costly for the hosts after the big moment of the first half presented itself in the 33rd minute when Norde once again made his way into the box down the left and was brought down by Clemente and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
The running battle between Karanjit and Norde though was to see its latest instalment as the Chennai City keeper dived correctly to his right to pull off a very good save and ensure that the scores stayed level. That effort seemed to energise the whole team as they managed to hold Bagan goalless going into half-time.
The hosts lost captain and main defender Dharnaraj Ravanan though to injury, with Amiri moving into his position. The hosts began the second half earnestly and their persistence was rewarded. Bagan, while opting to play the ball out from the back, were put under pressure and Tank managed to bundle the ball away from their central defender Eduardo Ferreira.
With the ball now at his feet, he had a free run through on goal and managed to beat Debjit with a low shot to give his side the lead. The joy of scoring their first ever league goal though, proved fleeting as the favourites Bagan were stirred into life.
Norde went on another one of his weaving runs down the left and managed to cut the ball back into the box. The ball popped up off the leg of a Chennai defender providing Jeje the opportunity for an easy tap in.
As the intensity increased with both sides pressing for a winner, Bagan struck in the 76th minute with what turned out to be the winner. Jeje returned the favour for his attacking partner, providing a beautiful through pass to Norde and the Haitian made no mistake this time as he calmly slotted it past Karanjit on goal.
It wasn’t to be the last of the action though as Chennai City were presented a really good opportunity just two minutes later when Charles found himself one-on-one with Bagan’s keeper off a long overhead pass from the defence. Debjit though made a fantastic reactionary save, sticking out his left leg to deny Charles and Chennai City.
Bagan had chances to add to their lead through substitutes Prabir Das and Balwant Singh, but the match would eventually go on to finish 2-1.
The win sees Bagan stay perfect and stay at the top with four wins out of four while for Chennai City it was a third loss of the campaign and they remain on one point.
