Bernard Mendy’s wonder goal was the decider between Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters as the home side made it two wins from as many matches in the Indian Super League (ISL).
Elano Blumer put the Chennaiyin FC ahead as he converted his spot-kick. However, the visitors equalized through Iain Hume. Bernard Mendy’s bicycle kick found the back of the net and eventually fetched three points for Marco Materazzi's side yet again.
The ‘South-Indian Derby’ rang in changes in both line-ups. For the home side, Dhanachandra Singh and Bruno Pelissari made way for Harmanjot Khabra and John Stiven Mendoza respectively.
The visitors, Kerala too made two changes to their side with Jamie McAllister and Stephen Pearson being benched in favour of Sandesh Jhingan and Victor Herrera Forcada.
Both sides changed their personnel but stuck to their original formations. This meant that a few players were re-organised into relatively newer positions.
The first chance came in the opening minute when Khabra clipped the ball forward to the overlapping Abhishek Das, whose low cross was headed just wide by the diving Balwant Singh. The visitors did well to quell the home team’s euphoria by having a spell of their own.
Tackles were flying in at this point from the visitors with John Mendoza and Bojan Djordjic the affected parties, with the latter coming on the end of a thumping challenge from Gurwinder Singh.
But all of this changed when Gurwinder Singh fouled the overlapping Abhishek Das, who got on the end of a delightful Djordjic lob. It was a clear foul and Elano stepped up and added to his tally from the first game by slotting the ball into the bottom left corner of David James’ goal.
Kerala Blasters tried punting long balls into Iain Hume and CS Sabeeth to get back into the game but to no avail. Sabeeth had a looping header go just wide while Elano treated the applauding crowd to an exquisite solo run before being thwarted by Hengbart.
The goal had woken Elano up, who was in the centre of everything good for Chennaiyin FC. Kerala though never gave up and struck the post with Sabeeth. The Kerala-born lad received the ball from Jhingan and smartly turned Silvestre unleashing a first time shot which hit the upright.
This gave Kerala momentum and confidence. Chennaiyin too didn’t help their cause by losing concentration on a couple of occasions. Gouramangi Moirangthem almost conceded a goal as he took his eyes off the ball with Forcada nicking the ball off him and taking a shot which just went over.
As half-time approached, Mendoza started hogging the limelight for Chennaiyin on the right. His enthusiasm got the better of him when Elano put him through one-on-one with James with an excellent header. The Colombian rounded James successfully but when he realised the ball had gone too far, he went down and was rightly booked for simulation.
The home side’s No. 14 though was not affected by this as he brought out a great save from James, who used his legs to good effect, keeping the score at 1-0.
The half ended with Kerala in the ascendancy as Jhingan got the better of Silvestre, but his cut-back was not guided in by Orji, whose back-heel flick was cleared by Mendy.
The second half began with a wave of yellow pressure and they didn’t have to wait for long as Nirmal Chettri’s knockdown from a corner was smashed into the roof of the net by Hume after Bracigliano had done well to save the first attempt.
Kerala were clearly spurred on by the goal and they introduced the attacking duo of Stephen Pearson and Michael Chopra in place of Victor Herrero Forcada and captain Penn Orji.
Chennaiyin were clearly getting frustrated as the Blasters' players were nipping at their heels. Mehtab Hossain got off easily, being on a yellow card, after getting into a brawl with Elano which invited a melee of players. Thankfully Mendy was there to play the role of peacemaker.
And that is when the tide of the game turned towards the home side. A moment of individual brilliance from Bernard Mendy restored the home side’s lead as Elano’s free-kick looped into his path after a Balwant Singh knock down. The Frenchman unleashed an unstoppable left-foot bicycle kick which left James clutching at thin air!
But Chennaiyin’s complacency again after going ahead almost cost them. Silvestre’s back pass was held by Bracigliano just outside his six-yard box on the left. The resultant indirect free-kick was messy from the Blasters as a string of clearances from Chennaiyin evaded the danger.
Chennaiyin then had a half chance from Pearson’s under-hit back pass, which Balwant came second-best to, thwarted by the onrushing David James.
In the 86th minute, the Blasters should have surely equalized. Hume and Chopra exchanged passes before the former’s cross was flicked on by Sabeeth. Bracigliano did well to palm it away but only as far as Chopra who laid it for Barisic and the Australian’s attempt was poor.
The fourth official then added on five extra minutes at the end of the 90 with Hume still Kerala’s main threat. But all his efforts came to nothing as Chennaiyin FC held on for their second successive 2-1 win, this time in front of their home crowd.
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