CHENNAI STUN TABLE TOPPERS
CHENNAI: Playing their final home game, Chennai City clinched a memorable win by overcoming East Bengal 2-1 at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai on Sunday.
Willis Plaza (43’) gave East Bengal the lead in the first half before Nandhakumar (57’) saw his shot trickle through Rehenesh’s legs. Youngster Prasanth then clinched the winner (93’) with an opportunistic strike after the goalkeeper parried Charles’ shot.
In what was a must-win fixture, Trevor Morgan opted to make wholesale changes to the team that was upset by Churchill Brothers. Lalrindika Ralte, Narayan Das and Rahul Bheke came in while Arnab Mondal and Willis Plaza were also deemed fit enough to start.
Chennai City, on the other hand, made just the sole change to the team that held Bengaluru during midweek with Marcos Vinicius replacing Raegan Albarnas in Soundararajan’s 4-4-1-1 system.
East Bengal started the game on the front foot and fashioned the first chance in the third minute when Lalrindika Ralte played Payne through the middle and the Australian went on to skip past a couple of challenges and got a shot away from the edge of the area which had to be kept out by an alert Karanjit. The home team, though, looked good on counter and forced a diving save from Rehenesh in 9th minute.
East Bengal got the much awaited go-ahead goal when Mehtab Hossain played Rahul Bheke down the the right and his cross was thumped in by Willis Plaza at the near post.
The goal ensured Trevor Morgan’s nerves were eased as the teams went into the break.
Post the half-time break, East Bengal looked a bit off their game and the match did not see much chances until the 57th minute when Chennai hit back on a counter. Zakeer won a loose ball in midfield and played in Raegan who was inside the box with Bukenya on him. The striker then spotted an unmarked Nandhakumar on the right and played a pass for him who went on to hit a first time shot venomously at Rehenesh who allowed the ball to sneak in through his legs.
But the goal failed to spark a furious reaction from East Bengal who failed to penetrate the Chennai City backline who dealt with aerial balls launched towards the two physical forwards with ease.
Trevor Morgan’s side committed men forward in desperate search for a winner which ultimately led to their downfall.
In the second minute of injury-time, Charles burst forward on the counter, held off a couple of defenders and shot straight at Rehenesh who saved with his legs.
But second-half substitute Prasanth Karuthadathkuni was on hand to slot the rebound home from inside the six-yard box as Chennai City bench went into delirium.
There was no time for East Bengal to salvage a point from the game as they saw their title ambitions take a huge hit.
After the major upset in the last match before the International break, Chennai City FC climb up to the 8th spot with 13 points from 14 matches while East Bengal stay second with 27 points having played the equal number of matches.
In the other game, the threematch winning run of Churchill Brothers in I-league came to a halt as Shillong Lajong held them to a 0-0 draw at the Tilak Maidan on Sunday.
The point shared means both teams maintain their positions in the table with Lajong staying on fourth with 20 points and Churchill Brothers remain sixth with 16 points.
Expectedly, the game was a slow burner with Churchill Brothers having a slight domination over visitor Shillong Lajong. The first goal scoring opportunity of the game came in the 10th minute when a foray into the box by Churchill skipper Anthony Wolfe saw the striker narrowly miss the goal when his swerving ground shot hit the far post. The rebound from Ghanefo Kromah was kept out by Lajong keeper Vishal Kaith. Lajong failed to register a single shot on target but managed to keep Churchill at bay as the score at half-time was 0-0.
The second half saw Lajong venture forward more and had a half chance when Dipanda had a rebound shot saved by goalkeeper Naveen Kumar.
The Churchill keeper tried to kick away an acrobatic effort from Samuel Lalmuanpuia that ricocheted off Dipanda into Kumar’s path in the 54th minute.
In the end, the two teams cancelled each other. Kaith was adjudged man of the match as the U-22 player had an impressive game between the posts for Lajong.