ISL 3: Pune salvage a point at home against Chennaiyin FC

by Chittu Shetty October 24, 2016

Jeje’s first half stunner was cancelled out by Anibal Zurdo’s brilliant free kick at the end as both sides came out with a point each.

Jeje brilliant lofted shot gave chennaiyin an early lead

Chennaiyin FC missed a chance to go top of the table, after Jeje Lalpekhlua brilliant chip goal from outside the box, allowed Chennaiyin to take the lead until Anibal Zurdo’s free-kick from the edge of the box allowed the FC Pune City to pick up their first home point in the third edition of the ISL.

Returning from his four match touchline ban, Pune Coach Antonio Habas started with a 4-4-2 formation, Eduardo Ferreira coming in for Gouramangi Singh at defence, Jonatan Lucca and Mohammed Sissoko starting at the heart of midfield while Arata Izumi and Sanju Pradhan played as wingers, Jesus Tato and Dramane Traore were the strikers. Marco Materazzi, came up with a complete new attacking unit with Jeje Lalpekhlua, Jayesh Rane and Omagbeni Dudu all starting. Manuel Blasi came in for Raphael Augusto, while in defense John Arne Riise came back to start the game. Duwayne Kerr replaced Karanjit between the sticks.

The game started with both sides getting their first goals ruled out within ten minutes. Pune City’s Dramane Traore was the first to be disappointed after he headed the ball past the Jamaican keeper, only to be disallowed by the official, who rightly spotted the ball going out of play on the left hand side, before Jonathan managed to cross it. For Chennaiyin, a free-kick from Riise ended up for Dudu, who was adjudged to be offside, before shooting past the keeper.

In the 28^th minute, a long ball from riise ended up with Jeje grappling for the ball with Eduardo. The striker, from around 30 yards from goal, lobbed his shot over the Pune keeper, Edel Bete, whose diving effort wasn’t enough, as the ball went in much to the delight of Chennai fans.

Soon Pune upped their attacking efforts, Narayan Das’s deep cross, was nodded by Sanju Pradhan towards tato, who blazed over the shot. Jonatan soon tried his luck from outside the box with a right footed strike that just flew inches over the bar.

With most of the ball possession in pune half, the half chances kept on coming, good passing on the right between Bheke and Tato resulted in the latter back heeling the ball for Sissoko whose left footed shot goes wide.

The first half ended with Pune trailing by a goal.

Also Read: ISL 3: Hume’s Penalty hands Delhi their first loss of season

Pune celebrate after Anibal zurdo Rescues a point for pune

An early chance saw Chennaiyin miss the opportunity to double the lead. Dudu smashed ball saw keeper palmed it away only for the ball to fall towards a diving Mulder whose weak header lobbed the ball up into the air and into the Pune City keeper’s gloves.

While Harmanjot Khabra was introduced by Materazzi, to protect the lead, Pune got lucky not to be down to ten after the referee miss Ravanan’s stamp on Dudu. Surprisingly, Argentine substitute Oberman who had played just 15 minutes, was re-substituted for Anibal Zurdo.

The substitution worked for the home side, in the 82nd minute Khabra brought down Lucca from outside the box resulting in a free-kick from just around 25 yards. Anibal Zurdo, lifted the ball over the wall and onto the post of diving Kerr, as the ball went into the goal.

With the lead settled, Pune quickly went for the winner winning another free kick from similar position, Zurdo took the freekick again, but this time the ball went straight to Kerr who fisted away the chance.

In the second minute of injury time, Chennaiyin had a golden opportunity to finish off the game when Davide Succi had a free shot on goal but the strike was too tame as the ball was easily collected by Edel.

Pune City now have five points while Chennaiyin moved to third with eight points.

FC Pune City 1 (Anibal Zurdo 82’) – 1 Chennaiyin FC (Jeje 28’)