Chennaiyin FC continued their impressive start to the ISL campaign by beating Kerala Blasters 2-1 in Chennai. In a closely contested and exciting face-off between the South Indian teams, Chennaiyin FC managed to squeeze in a narrow victory courtesy a spectacular overhead kick by Bernard Mendy. This result has lifted them to second in the league table behind Atletico de Kolkata. Meanwhile, Kerala Blasters are yet to register their first points of this campaign after loosing first two matches.
Both the teams were quick off the blocks with chances being created at both ends to score. But Chennaiyin FC took the lead fairly early in the game after the Brazilian Elano converted a penalty in the 15th minute. This was his second goal in 2 games and is looking in great shape for Chennaiyin FC. The penalty was awarded after Abhishek Das was recklessly challenged by Gurwinder Singh in the box, leaving the referee no option but to award the spot-kick. Gurwinder Singh would however consider himself lucky to have stayed on the field as he was earlier booked for a similar offense.
But the visitors didn’t seemed to be out of the game and enjoyed a fair share of possession in the first half. But failed to convert the possession into goals as they went into halftime, a goal down.
Kerala Blasters came out determined to cancel the deficit and they managed to do that after 5 mins of the second half with Ian Hume scoring the Blaster’s first goal in the ISL.
And just after the hour mark Bernard Mendy popped up with a moment of brilliance as his spectacular overhead kick left David James with no chance. The ISL has already witnessed some brilliant goals and this one of Mendy is another contender for the goal of the season.
With the pace of the game not dropping at all, both teams managed to entertain the audience. Kerala Blasters had enough chances to equalize, or perhaps even win it in the last few minutes. But their attacking line-up which includes the former Newcastle United and Cardiff City striker Michael Chopra failed to find the back of the net. And once again, the Blasters would feel unlucky to walk away empty handed despite putting on a good performance. But the failure in taking their chances has really left Kerala Blasters desperate for their first point of the season.
Meanwhile, Chennaiyin FC and Marco Materazzi could not have asked for a better start and would now be looking to build on these results to give Atletico de Kolkata a real run for their top position in the table.
