ISL 5: Chennaiyin register season’s first victory with 4-2 defeat of FC Pune City

Defending champions Chennaiyin FC clinched their first victory of the season with a 4-2 win over the bottom-placed Pune City at the Balewadi Stadium on Tuesday.

Ashique Kuruniyan gave the hosts an early lead but Chennaiyin fought back in the second half with all four goals coming in the second half. Mailson Alves equalised in the 54^th minute before Gregory Nelson, Inigo Calderon and Thoi Singh added to the tally to complete a resounding comeback.

Reigning champions @ChennaiyinFC picked up their first victory of the 2018-19 season with a solid 4-2 win over @FCPuneCity in Pune.

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— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) November 6, 2018

Winless in their last six encounters and with just a draw, Chennaiyin started well and dominated possession but it was Pune, who took the lead against the run of play. A diagonal cross-field ball from Robin Singh allowed Kuruniyan to run at Calderon before he slotted the ball home past Karanjit Singh from a tight angle.

Despite going behind Chennayin continued to dominate and should have gone ahead when Francis Fernandes found himself through on goal but failed to find the target. And instead, it was Pune, who came the closest to scoring from a Matt Mills free-kick, which Karanjit somehow kept out.

It was, however, a different game in the second half with Chennaiyin coming firing in search of the equaliser. Their first chance came when Nelson ran behind the Pune defenders but found no attackers to deal with his cross.

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Minutes later the floodgates opened and inside 18 minutes Chennaiyin had scored four times. Their first came through Alves, who headed home an Anirudh Thapa corner to level the scores for his side in the 54^th minute.

Two minutes later, the scorer turned provider when Alves found Nelson with a long ball. The winger ran at Lalchhuanmawia Fanai before chipping the ball over a rushing Pune goalkeeper Kamaljit Singh to put Chennaiyin on the lead.

The home team had not even got over the second goal when Chennaiyin doubled their lead through Calderon from a Thapa corner in the 69^th minute. Pune defence failed to deal with the corner from which Raphael Augusto found Calderon, who completed a simple tap-in.

Spurred from their momentum Chenaiyin added a fourth three minutes later. It was Augusto again at the heart of it and the Brazilian found substitute Jeje, whose shot was blocked by the goalkeeper. But the ball fell kindly for Thoi and the youngster completed the rout.

After providing two assists, Augusto nearly found himself on the scoresheet but his dink was straight at the post.

Pune averted the humiliation with a consolation goal with Jonathan Villa heading Marcelinho’s corner to make it 4-2. But their plight was further increased when the Brazilian was shown a straight red for a high-tackle on Germanpreet Singh.

They remain at the bottom of the table without a win after six matches, while Chennaiyin climbed a place high and are at eighth with four points from seven matches.

Image Source: ISL